The University of California, Santa Barbara is a public research university and one of the 10 campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a 1022acre site near Isla Vista, California, United States, 8mi from Santa Barbara and 100mi northwest of Los Angeles. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers' college, UCSB joined the University of California system in 1944 and is the third-oldest general-education campus in the system.UCSB is one of America's Public Ivy universities, which recognizes top public research universities in the United States. The university is a comprehensive doctoral university and is organized into five colleges and schools offering 87 undergraduate degrees and 55 graduate degrees. UCSB was ranked 37th among "National Universities", 8th among U.S. public universities and 24th among Best Global Universities by U.S. News & World Report 's 2016 rankings. The university was also ranked 48th worldwide for 2016-17 by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and 42nd worldwide by the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2016.UC Santa Barbara is a "very high activity" research university with twelve national research centers, including the renowned Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics. Current UCSB faculty includes six Nobel Prize laureates, one Fields Medalist, 39 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 27 members of the National Academy of Engineering, and 34 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. UCSB was the No. 3 host on the ARPAnet and was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1995.
