University of Waterloo

The University of Waterloo (also known as Waterloo, UW, or UWaterloo) is a public research university in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, with its main campus located in the city of Waterloo. The main campus on 404 hectares (998 acres) of land, beside "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park, and is accessible by car or on foot. The university also has three satellite campuses and four associated university institutions in addition to its main campus. The university's academic programmes are overseen by six faculties and thirteen faculty-based schools, which are located around the campus. Currently, approximately 20,000 undergraduate students are enrolled in Waterloo's co-operative education programme, making it the biggest post-secondary co-operative education programme in the world. Canada's U15 institutions, including the University of Waterloo, are known for their research-intensive programmes.

The Waterloo College Associate Faculties were created on 4 April 1956 as a semi-autonomous body of Waterloo College, which was an affiliate of the University of Western Ontario at the time of its founding. The institution's origins may be traced back to that day. The University of Waterloo Act, passed by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1959, marked the legal separation of this body from Waterloo College and its incorporation as a university. It was formed in order to meet the expanding need for engineers and technicians in Canada's postwar economy, which was booming at the time. Over the following decade, it expanded significantly, gaining a college of arts in 1960 and the College of Optometry of Ontario (now known as the School of Optometry and Vision Science), which relocated from Toronto in 1967 to become a part of the university.

The university is a co-educational school with around 36,000 undergraduate and 6,200 postgraduate students enrolled in 2020, according to the most recent data available. Alumni and former students of Waterloo Institution may be found all around Canada and in over 150 countries, and the university has been linked with a number of award winners, government figures, and corporate executives over the course of its history. The University of Waterloo's varsity teams, known as the Waterloo Warriors, participate in the Ontario University Athletics conference of the United Sports Federation (U Sports).