UCR will admit fewer first-year students as a result of state budget woes, and that's not altogether a bad thing.

The enrollment restriction is disappointing on one level, because it prevents otherwise qualified students from attending UC Riverside.

At the same time, more rigorous admission standards will enhance the prestige of the campus, and help it grow and improve in the long run.

Boosting admission standards would, over time, strengthen UCR's reputation and raise the value of a UCR degree, even for those who have already graduated.

That's not to say there's anything wrong with a UCR education now. As part of the prestigious University of California, it offers many superb programs and opportunities.

UCR, however, embraces the bare-minimum admission standard for UC, admitting high school students who finish in the top 12.5 percent of their classes, meet course requirements and submit entrance exam test scores.

Other UC campuses demand a higher level of achievement. UC Berkeley and UCLA, for example, are the most prestigious within the university - and among the most selective in the country. UCR need not aim for that niche, but it can ask more of the students it accepts.

In any case, enrollment constraints were inevitable given the state's financial crisis. The budget Gov. Schwarzenegger released in January suggested $372 million in cuts to UC.

Under that plan, UCR enrollment would fall by 700 students this fall, compared with last autumn. Campus enrollment, howver, would remain stable at 17,000. University fees also would climb.

California needs to make sure those 700 students can find slots in the in the California State University or community college systems, which are less expensive for the state to run.

Meanwhile, UCR can emerge from these budget cuts a better school - more like other UC campuses - with higher entrance standards and the growing prestige that competitive admissions bring.