McGill University is a public institution that was founded in 1821 and is located in Quebec, Canada. The university has two campuses: the downtown campus in Montreal and the Macdonald campus in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue. The two campuses are approximately 20 miles apart. The primary language of instruction is English, although in a recent year around 20 percent of university students said French was their mother tongue. In fact, around half of the population of Montreal speaks French as a first language. Around one-fourth of the student body is international, with students hailing from more than 150 countries. University housing is available for undergraduate and graduate students on both campuses.

The university is made up of 10 faculties and schools – agricultural and environmental sciences, arts, dentistry, education, engineering, law, management, medicine, music and science – that offer around 300 programs of study. Around two-thirds of the university’s students study at the undergraduate level. Tuition costs are higher for international students, and McGill’s academic calendar is based on a semester system. The university is affiliated with multiple teaching hospitals, and its medical school is the oldest in Canada. Research at the university takes place at more than 40 McGill research centers – such as the McGill Centre for Bioinformatics, the Centre on Population Dynamics and the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy – and at other affiliated institutes and hospitals. The creation of the first artificial blood cell is among the research achievements associated with the university.