UCLA Extension is a continuing education institution headquartered in Westwood, Los Angeles, on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles. Classes are held at UCLA, in Downtown Los Angeles, and other locations throughout Los Angeles County, including Torrance.
Founded in 1917, it is part of the University of California system, and all courses are approved by the University of California, Los Angeles, although it is financially self-supporting.
UCLA Extension is accredited, through UCLA, by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
On February 14, 1893, the Regents of the University of California adopted the extramural instruction plan, which officially founded University Extension.
In 1902, University Extension was reorganized as a self-governing body within the University. The doors of UC Extension in Los Angeles (officially "University of California Extension Division, Southern District") were opened in September 1917.
Extension's original location was in downtown Los Angeles. For the growing film industry, one early course was "Motion Pictures: The Film as a Factor in Molding Tomorrow's Citizenry." By 1919, more than 1,600 students attended almost 100 classes.
Beginning in 1942, Dean Baldwin Woods guided University Extension through the revisionist era of World War II and the postwar years. "Long before many leaders in the community realized that the knowledge explosion had shattered the myth of ever 'finishing' one's education, he perceived the huge and unending task of continuing education."
The UCLA Extension Writers’ Program is the largest open-enrollment writing and screenwriting program in the world.
Notable alumni include: Bryan Cogman, Game of Thrones; Stuart Beattie, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra; Australia; Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl; 30 Days of Night; Collateral; Zoanne Clack, Grey’s Anatomy; Tucker Cawley, Parks, and Recreation, Everybody Loves Raymond; Eric Jerome Dickey, Resurrecting Midnight; Doug Ellin, Entourage; Janet Fitch, White Oleander (Oprah Pick); Alice Greenway, White Ghost Girls (winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction); Gavin Hood, Tsotsi (Academy Award winner, Best Foreign Film); Randi Mayem Singer, Mrs. Doubtfire; Melissa Rosenberg, adaptation of Twilight; Dexter; Earl W. Wallace, Witness (Academy Award winner for Best Original Screenplay); Joseph Wambaugh, The Onion Field; Kevin Williamson, Scream, Dawson’s Creek; Iris Yamashita, Letters from Iwo Jima (Academy Award nominee for Best Original Screenplay).