The University of California, Davis (also referred to as UC Davis), is a public research university and land-grant university adjacent to Davis, California. It is part of the University of California system and has the third-largest enrollment in the system after UCLA and UC Berkeley. The institution was founded as a branch in 1909 and became its own separate entity in 1959. It has been labeled one of the "Public Ivies", a publicly funded university considered to provide a quality of education comparable to those of the Ivy League.