As the continuing education arm of the University of California, Irvine, UC Irvine Extension is dedicated to providing a transforming learning experience for students. UC Irvine Extension maintains more than 30,000 enrollments each year and offers thousands of exciting courses and programs to local, corporate, regional and global constituencies. Most Extension students already have college degrees and rely on course offerings to continually update their portfolio of skills and proficiencies. In addition, UC Irvine Extension administers UCI’s Distance Learning and Summer Session programs.

UC Irvine Extension annually offers over 4,000 university-level professional and personal enrichment courses, including 35 certificate programs and 18 specialized studies programs. For the convenience of working adults, most courses are held online, or evenings and weekends on the UC Irvine campus.

UC Irvine Extension also provides custom education and training programs at business sites worldwide. Extension instructors are highly qualified, UC Irvine-approved leading industry experts. The department is financially self-supported, deriving income primarily from course enrollment fees without state funds.

Distinctions

• During 2008-09, UC Irvine Extension awarded 1,400 certificates in programs including Appraisal Studies, Business Analyst, Clinical Trials, Human Resources Management, Sustainability Leadership, Medical Product Development, Personal Financial Planning, Project Management and Teaching English as a Foreign Language.
• More than 77 percent of UC Irvine Extension’s students have at least a college degree or higher. Additionally, 37 percent of students have graduate or post-graduate degrees. On average, students range in age from 25 to 64, with a median age of 35.
• UC Irvine Extension provides customized corporate training for large-scale companies and organizations such as Advanced Medical Optics, Beckman Coulter, The Boeing Company, Broadcom, Conexant, County of Orange, Edwards Lifesciences, Northrop Grumman, Parker Aerospace, Southern California Edison, and more.
• UC Irvine, the first University of California campus and west coast university to join the OpenCourseWare Consortium, plays an important global leadership role in open education. The OCW initiative is lead by UC Irvine Extension, which contributed the first ten complete courses to the university’s OCW library. The website repository includes a materials database of more than 1,000 presentations, syllabi, readings and lectures.