The University of Alberta is a public institution that was founded in 1908. Located in the province of Alberta in Western Canada, around 80 percent of the university’s students study at the undergraduate level. The university is made up of five campuses, four of which are in the city of Edmonton, including the main North Campus, which covers around 50 city blocks. The university’s fifth site, the Augustana Campus, is located roughly an hour away from Edmonton in the rural city of Camrose. Some 1,000 students study at the smaller Augustana Campus, which focuses on liberal arts and sciences.

The university offers studies in a range of disciplines, such as arts, business, engineering and medicine. English is the language of instruction, with the exception of the university’s Campus Saint-Jean, where French is the primary language. More than 20 percent of the University of Alberta student body is international, and tuition costs are higher for these students. The school’s academic calendar is made up of fall and winter terms, as well as shorter, optional spring and summer terms. University housing is available for undergraduate and graduate students in Edmonton and at the Augustana campus. The University of Alberta is affiliated with major research institutions, such as the multidisciplinary National Institute for Nanotechnology. The university also has more than 400 research, teaching and exchange agreements with schools and other organizations around the world, such as the University of Munich in Germany and the University of Western Australia.