The Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Project is a collaborative effort among academic scholars and institutional researchers devoted to collecting new data and providing policy-relevant analysis of exactly these questions. Its purpose is to study in depth the undergraduate experience and, at the same time, through systematic analysis and use of data for policymaking, promote an institutional culture of evidence and self-improvement. Based at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, and led by a faculty and institutional research team, one of the SERU Project's main accomplishments has been the development of the University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES)--a census online survey focused on the unique environment of research universities and the challenges they face. Since 2004, the UCUES has been administered regularly to the 170,000 enrolled students across all nine of the University of California's undergraduate campuses. Analyzing data from the latest UC-wide census administration of the survey in spring 2008, this report is the third general report offered by the SERU Project. In this report the authors replicate work on UC students' academic and civic engagement presented in previous general reports. Here readers will find trends in socioeconomic and racial/ethnic background, academic and co-curricular time allocation, and other measures of the student experience. In addition, the authors provide for the first time results on the level and type of research engagement of undergraduate students and on student-reported learning gains--two important issues related to the unique environment of public universities. (Contains 55 figures and 10 footnotes.)