Students at California’s public universities are having trouble meeting basic course requirements due to the lower number of courses being offered.

LOS ANGELES—With state budget cuts forcing California’s public universities to shrink their course offerings, earning a bachelor’s degree in four years is becoming even more difficult for many students.

“One winter quarter, there were so few classes, I could only get three out of five offered,” said David Allison, a senior at California State University San Bernardino. “CSU is no longer a four-year institution. It’s more like a five- or six-year institution.”

As the fall semester gets under way, students at the University of California, the California State University and California Community Colleges are feeling the pinch of $2.5 billion in cuts to the state’s public higher education budget over the past three years.

They’re taking on more jobs and loans to pay higher tuition bills and signing up for unnecessary electives to retain financial aid because courses that count toward degree requirements are full. Meanwhile, many high school seniors and community college graduates are frozen out altogether because admissions have been limited.

“You have a generally, very stressed out student population,” said Parker Jean, a political science student at Santa Monica College, a two-year school.