At long last, the University of California has taken steps that just might improve its academic quality. This is remarkable because for much of the last decade, it's often seemed as if the U.C. system sought to cheapen its degrees and make them amount to less.

Change after change occurred or was considered that moved what once was the most elite of American public universities in a dumbing-down direction.

There were changes in what standardized tests to require. There were changes that appeared designed to skirt the rules of the 1996 Prop. 209, which banned affirmative action in college admissions and other public activities.

How Their Slide Really Began

Most pernicious was the so-called “4 percent rule,” which guaranteed a spot at some University of California campus for anyone graduating in the top 4 percent of his or her high school class. Under this rule, it made no difference what academic classes students might take, so long as they met the most basic U.C. requirements. Nor did things like Scholastic Aptitude Test scores or grades on the American College Testing exams make any difference.

The clear aim of this tactic was to bring more minority students into the system, leading to what academics love to call “diversity.” In short, admit more Hispanics and African-Americans and fewer whites and Asian-Americans.

But things didn't work out that way. It happened that the schools where students previously were least likely to attend U.C. were mostly-white rural ones whose low budgets often lead to limited curriculum and college counseling.

So minority enrollments, aside from Asian-Americans, dropped steadily after passage of the misguided 4-percent rule, as did freshman admission standards.

Now the rules have changed.

No longer will that 4 percent rule apply. From now on, the top 9 percent of each statewide high school graduating class will be guaranteed a slot at U.C. — not necessarily the campus of each individual's choice, but somewhere. That 9 percent will be determined by a combination of grades and test scores, meaning students might again become more motivated to enroll in advanced placement courses that often provide a boost to grade-point averages.

Going for the Truly Qualified

At the same time, U.C. will widen the pool of students from whom it's willing to accept applications. It will eliminate the requirement that students take subject exams in specific knowledge areas, while still demanding either a writing or a reasoning standardized test in order for an application to be considered.

The U.C. Academic Senate, which passes on all new admissions rules, found in a four-year study that about 22,000 high school graduates were disqualified from applying each year because they didn't take one of those tests, many because their schools offered little counseling, and they didn't know they needed to take subject tests.

At the same time, applicants will need a 3.0 (B) grade-point average in order to apply, rather than the previous 2.8 (B-). And the university will guarantee some kind of financial aid to all students whose parents make less than $60,000 per year.

Taken together, these moves mean U.C. will offer automatic admission to fewer students than before, but will consider thousands of other students who previously had no chance at all to get in. And the minimum performance standard among the pool of eligibles will be higher.

Some have labeled all this another dumbing-down of the university. That could fairly be said of the old 4 percent rule, which favored students from underperforming schools over high academic achievers.

But it's hard to see how the newest changes can be taken as anything but an affirmation of higher standards combined with greater opportunity for students who have dealt with hardships and received poor counseling in high school.

Yes, these rules can also be seen as another end-run around Prop. 209, and maybe that's their partial intent. For sure, university officials from President Mark Yudof on down say they hope the changes will lead to more diversity. Read: They still want more black and Hispanic students on campus.

But diversity doesn't have to mean lower academic quality, as the failed 4 percent rule did. Rather, it will give students who faced hardships, ranging from divorced parents to physicial disabilities or a need for holding after-school jobs, an opportunity to make their case on applications that will actually be read by U.C. officials.

It may not be perfect, but it's an improvement for sure, and at least a leveling off in the declining standards that have diminished the stature of U.C. and its degrees for the last 10 years or so.

Mr. Elias is author of the current book “The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government's Campaign to Squelch It,” now available in an updated third edition. He may be contacted at tdelias@aol.com