美国州立高等学校。加利福尼亚大学9所分校中历史最悠久也最有声誉的一所。
1868年由加利福尼亚学院以及农业、矿业和机械学院合并而成，校址初在奥克兰市，1873年迁至圣弗朗西斯科（旧 金山）附近的伯克利市。1899年，在校长惠勒领导下，学校规模扩大，学科范围拓宽，尤其是农业、人文和工程学科发展较快，声誉逐渐提高。
1930～1960年，斯布劳尔任校长，大力提高教学质量，并在核物理、化学和生物学方面吸引优秀学者。该校设有工商管理、化学、工程、环境设计、法 律、文理、图书馆和信息科学、自然资源、验光、公共卫生、社会福利等学院以及教育、新闻、公共政策等研究生院共14所学院，另设有劳伦斯伯克利实验室等60个科研机构。学校实
行1学年分3学期制，本科4年，修满180学分可获学士学位。该校的研究生部是美国最大的研究生部，研究生占学生总数的1／3， 每年约有500名研究生获得博士学位。
伯克利分校在加利福尼亚大学董事会领导下，由校长负责管理学校，由学术评议会处理学术事务。招生条件较严格，规定报考该校的中学毕业生，考试的平均积分为3.3分或学习能力倾向测验的平均成绩在500分以上者方能入学。该校曾有许多学者获得诺贝尔奖。
学校历史
最早伯克利加大这片土地是1866年由私立的加利福尼亚学院（College of California）所买下，但由于资金短缺，学院被州立的农业、矿业和机械学院合并，并在1868年3月23日成立了加利福尼亚大学，Durant为第一任校长。
20世纪中期是伯克利加大在物理学、化学和生物学的黄金时代。藉由物理学家恩尼斯特?劳伦斯（Ernest O. Lawrence）发明的回旋加速器，在这间学校的研究学者发现了许多重于铀的元素。??（<noinclude>）和?l（< noinclude>）是以这所大学的名字来命名的，而??（Lawrencium）和（Seaborgium）则是以此校的劳伦斯和葛兰?希柏格 （Glenn T. Seaborg）的名字来命名的。
二次大战时期，伯克利加大的劳伦斯放射实验室（Lawrence's Radiation Laboratory）曾经承包美国军方的原子弹研发计划。
伯克利加大在越南战争期间由于其学生对于美国政府的抗议而变得全球知名。 1964年在加大伯克利发起的言论自由运动（Free Speech Movement）改变了一代人的政治和道德看法。
今天，大部份的学生都已不再像他们的学长们那么政治化了，但是仍然有一小部份急进成员继续维持他们的传统。
学校环境
伯克利加大的校地总面积约为5平方公里，而主校区约72公顷。伯克利加大图书馆共有藏书920万册，是北美地区第四大的图书馆，在国会图书馆、哈佛大学图书馆和耶鲁大学图书馆之后。大学部约有学生23,000人，研究所约有10,000人。
历任校长
校长的职位在1952年加利福尼亚大学重新组织和扩张时创设；从那以后共有10名校长：
1.Clark Kerr (1952?C1958)
2.Glenn T. Seaborg (1958?C1961)
3.Edward W. Strong (1961?C1965)
4.Martin E. Meyerson (1965, acting)
5.Roger W. Heyns (1965?C1971)
6.Albert H. Bowker (1971?C1980)
7.Ira Michael Heyman (1980?C1990)
8.田长霖(1990?C1997)
9.Robert M. Berdahl (1997?C2004)
10.Robert J. Birgeneau (2004?Cpresent)
院系设置
伯克利加大130个以上的系所被组织在14个colleges跟schools。（“Colleges”包括大学和研究所，而“Schools”只含研究所，唯一的例外是商学院）：

*商学院（Haas School of Business）
*化学院（College of Chemistry）
*教育研究所（Graduate School of Education）
*工学院（College of Engineering）
*环境设计学院（College of Environmenal Design）
*资讯管理与系统学院（School of Information Management and Systems）
*传播研究所（Graduate School of Journalism）
*法学院（Law School，Boalt Hall）
*理学院（College of Letters and Science）
*自然资源学院（College of Natural Resources）
*视光学院（School of Optometry）
*公共健康学院（School of Public Health）
*公共政策学院（Richard & Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy）
*社会福利学院（School of Social Welfare）

The roots of the University of California go back to the gold rush days of 1849, when the drafters of the State Constitution, a group of vigorous and farsighted people, required the legislature to "encourage by all suitable means the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral and agricultural improvement" of the people of California. These early planners dreamed of a university which eventually, "if properly organized and conducted, would contribute even more than California's gold to the glory and happiness of advancing generations."
The university that was born nearly 20 years later was the product of a merger between the College of California (a private institution) and the Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College (a land grant institution). The College of California, founded by former Congregational minister Henry Durant from New England, was incorporated in 1855 in Oakland. Its curriculum was modeled after that of Yale and Harvard, with the addition of modern languages to the core courses in Latin, Greek, history, English, mathematics, and natural history. With an eye to future expansion, the board of trustees augmented the college's Oakland holdings with the purchase of 160 acres of land four miles north, on a site they named Berkeley in 1866. (Cal's Charter was introduced in 1868.) This original tract was to be considerably expanded over the years.
While the College of California was in its infancy, efforts continued in the state legislature to create a public educational institution, and in 1866 the legislature took advantage of the federal Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 to establish the Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College. The college was to teach agricultural, mechanical arts, and military tactics "to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life." Scientific and classical studies were not to be excluded but were of secondary importance.
The boards of trustees of the College of California and the Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College decided to merge the two schools to their mutual advantage -- one had land but insufficient funds and the other had ample public funds but no land-on the condition that the curricula of both schools be blended to form "a complete university." On March 23, 1868, the governor signed into law the Organic Act that created the University of California. The new university used the former College of California's buildings in Oakland until South Hall and North Hall were completed on the Berkeley site (South Hall is still standing), and in September 1873 the University, with an enrollment of 191 students, moved to Berkeley.
Fiscal problems plagued the new University, and it was not until the 20-year presidency of Benjamin Ide Wheeler beginning in 1899 that finances stabilized, allowing the University to grow in size and distinction. Early in this period Phoebe Apperson Hearst, one of the University's most generous benefactors, conceived of and financed an unparalleled — indeed, scarcely believable — opportunity for architects, an international competition for campus architectural plans that, she stipulated, "should be worthy of the great University whose material home they are to provide for."
The competition, won by Emile Bénard of Paris, brought Berkeley not only a building plan but worldwide notoriety. The London Spectator wrote, "On the face of it this is a grand scheme, reminding one of those famous competitions in Italy in which Brunelleschi and Michaelangelo took part. The conception does honor to the nascent citizenship of the Pacific states. . . ." At Oxford University, which at the time was strapped for funds, a Latin orator said, "There is brought a report that in California there is already established a university furnished with so great resources that even to the architects (a lavish kind of men) full permission has been given to spare no expense. Amidst the most pleasant hills on an elevated site, commanding a wide sea view, is to be placed a home of Universal Science and a seat of the muses."
John Galen Howard, the supervising architect charged with implementing the Bénard plan, took advantage of his "permission to spare no expense" and developed a style of architecture that reinterpreted the grace, dignity, and austerity of classical lines to suit the California environment. Some of the campus's most elegant and stately structures were built during Howard's tenure, among them the Hearst Memorial Mining Building (1902-7), the Hearst Greek Theatre (1903), California Hall (1905), Doe Library (1911-17), the Campanile (1914), Wheeler Hall (1917), Gilman Hall (1917), and Hilgard Hall (1918).
President Wheeler, a classical scholar and able administrator, attracted library and scholarship funds, research grants, and a distinguished faculty to the University, and its reputation grew, particularly in the fields of agriculture, the humanities, and engineering. Many new departments were added in the early years of his presidency, and existing departments expanded. Summer sessions were begun in 1899 to train physics and chemistry teachers and before long broadened their scope.
The University grew with the rapidly expanding population of California and responded to the educational needs of the developing state. In the early 1900s the University's new College of Commerce (now the Haas School of Business) trained students for export trade with the Orient and funneled graduates into industries and businesses throughout the state. During the same period a foreign service training program was developed in response to State Department concern about the poor quality of consular personnel.
In 1930 Robert Gordon Sproul began a presidency that lasted three decades. His principal concern was academic excellence, and he was committed to attracting brilliant faculty in all fields. His success was particularly evident in the physical and biological sciences.
In the 1930s research on campus burgeoned in nuclear physics, chemistry, and biology, leading to the development of the first cyclotron by Ernest O. Lawrence, the isolation of the human polio virus, and the discovery of a string of elements heavier than uranium. Twenty members of the Berkeley faculty have been awarded Nobel Prizes for these and subsequent discoveries, as well as in literature and economics, for liberal arts kept pace with physical sciences. In 1966 Berkeley was recognized by the American Council on Education as "the best balanced distinguished university in the country."