The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley or Cal) is a public research university located in Berkeley, California. It is widely regarded as one of the top public universities in the United States and one of the world's leading universities. In 2016, The Times Higher Education World University Rankings named UC Berkeley as one of the six most prestigious universities in the world. The Free Speech Movement, initiated at Berkeley in 1964, changed global views on politics and morality.

Founded in 1868, UC Berkeley is the first institution established in the University of California system. Due to its merger of multiple colleges, UC Berkeley offers nearly 350 undergraduate and graduate programs, with a strong academic reputation in the humanities, business, engineering, and law. The university consists of 14 colleges and the UC Berkeley Extension, with the Haas School of Business and the College of Engineering being particularly renowned.

UC Berkeley also collaborates with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to manage three national laboratories and research centers, including Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). In addition to its academic achievements, UC Berkeley is known for its exceptional athletics program. The university's athletic teams are called the "California Golden Bears," and blue and gold are the official colors of the university.

In American college athletics, Berkeley has traditionally been referred to simply as "California" (Cal) due to the state's earlier naming conventions. The university’s mascot, the Golden Bear, is derived from the state seal of California, and its students often refer to themselves as "Cal Bears." The biggest rivalry is with Stanford University, with the winner of the annual "Big Game" earning possession of the "Stanford Axe."

Notable alumni include 72 Nobel Prize winners, 45 MacArthur Fellows, 20 Academy Award winners, 14 Pulitzer Prize winners, and 105 Olympic gold medalists. Famous alumni include Apple co-founder Stephen Wozniak, Intel Chairman Gordon Moore, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and actor Gregory Peck. Prominent Chinese alumni include Li Jiating, Yuan T. Lee, and Wang Xuehong.