The University of Washington was founded in 1861 and describes itself as a public research university. It has campuses in Seattle, Bothell and Tacoma, as well as a medical centre through UW Medicine. Robert J. Jones became its 34th president in August 2025; he was previously chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The university’s Fast Facts 2025-2026 report total enrolment of 63,736: 52,316 in Seattle, 6,361 in Bothell and 5,059 in Tacoma. Of these, 46,079 are undergraduates and 17,657 graduate or professional students. Across the three campuses the UW offers 499 programmes, and it reports an annual budget of $10.9 billion, of which $1.4 billion is the general operating fund. In FY25 it received $1.74 billion in total research awards from federal and non-federal sources.