UCI to confer more than 8,600 degrees at commencements through Monday

More than 8,600 Anteaters will earn their degrees over the weekend in 12 commencement ceremonies hosted by UC Irvine in its Bren Events Center.

The ceremonies are peppered with notable keynote speakers scheduled, starting Friday night with Henry and Susan Samueli. Hedge fund pioneer and author Ed Thorp, a founding faculty member at UC Irvine, will speak on Saturday. And, Attorney General of California Rob Bonta is set to take the stage on Monday to address graduates of the School of Social Ecology.

Bonta spoke at UCI in the fall when the law school opened the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality, which focuses on research, advocacy and clinical education around systemic racism.

In what UCI administrators say is a testament to the university’s dedication to access and affordability, 42% of those receiving bachelor’s degrees are first-generation college students, and nearly one-third of bachelor’s degree recipients transferred from a community college.

“This graduating class highlights how well UC Irvine is serving the people of our state by offering a world-class education to the best and brightest students, regardless of their financial circumstances, and acting as a powerful engine of upward economic mobility,” Chancellor Howard Gillman said in a statement.

Graduates and their friends lift each other up for a photo after the UC Irvine School of Social Sciences graduation ceremony at the Bren Events Center on the UC Irvine campus in Irvine on Friday, June 13, 2025. Pictured are Henry Huang is being lifted by graduate Irving Huang, left, graduate Dongfu Li is carried by Kai Kang, center, and graduate Kevin Li is in the arms of Mark Gong. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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UCI also continues to be recognized as a Hispanic-serving institution, a federal designation awarded to universities where at least 25% of undergrads identify as Latino and at least half of all students receive financial aid.

This year, UCI will grant bachelor’s degrees to 2,240 Latinos, a number that has steadily increased for the past decade, university officials said.

Overall, for the 2024-25 academic year, UCI will confer more than 10,000 degrees. Here’s the breakdown:

Bachelor’s degrees: 8,626
Master’s degrees: 967
Ph.D.s: 365
Law degrees: 155 (conferred May 9)
Medical degrees: 110 (conferred May 17)
Pharmacy degrees: 38 (conferred May 23)

Commencement ceremonies were held Friday for the School of Social Sciences and the College of Health Sciences, which includes the schools of medicine, nursing, pharmaceutical sciences and population and public health.

On Saturday, the engineering, information and computer sciences, education and physical sciences schools will hold their ceremonies. The School of Business, the School of Arts and the School of Biological Sciences have ceremonies on Sunday. And, on Monday, the School of Social Ecology and the School of Humanities will close out the commencement weekend.

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