The present invention discloses a state transition method, user equipment, and a radio network controller. The user equipment includes: a receiving unit, configured to receive state transition indication information and information about a target RRC state that are sent by a radio network controller (RNC), where the state transition indication information is used for instructing the user equipment to perform enhanced state transition; and a transition unit, configured to enable the user equipment to transit from a current RRC state to the target RRC state according to the state transition indication information.