The University of California, Merced (UC Merced or UCM), is the tenth and newest of the University of California campuses. It is located in the San Joaquin Valley in unincorporated Merced County, California, near Merced just north of Fresno, California. Established in 2005, UC Merced is the first American research university to be built in the 21st century.Most UC Merced students are from California with enrollment nearly evenly divided between Southern California, the Central Valley, and Northern California.

UC Merced claims to be the only institution in the United States to have all of its buildings on campus to be LEED certified. Its Triple Net Zero Commitment is expected to create zero net landfill waste and zero net greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2020.