Founded in Seattle in 1861, the University of Washington (UW) is a public research university with campuses in Seattle, Tacoma, and Bothell. UW is the largest university in the northwestern United States and is one of the oldest universities on the west coast. As the flagship research university for the state, UW preserves, develops and disseminates knowledge in a wide variety of subject areas. In fall 2017, UW enrolled nearly 58,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. In addition, UW Continuum College educates more than 50,000 students annually via in-person and online degree and certificate programs and continuing professional education programs. The three UW campuses offer a broad range of graduate and undergraduate degrees, and collectively support more than 606 degree options across 314 programs, 970-plus student organizations and undergraduate research opportunities for more than 8,400 students. In 2016-17, UW awarded more than 16,000 bachelors, masters, doctoral and professional degrees.

The primary mission of the University of Washington is the preservation, advancement and dissemination of knowledge. The university preserves knowledge through its libraries and collections, its courses and the scholarship of its faculty. It advances new knowledge through many forms of research, inquiry and discussion; and disseminates it through the classroom and laboratory, scholarly exchanges, creative practice, international education, and public service. As one of the nation's outstanding teaching and research institutions, the university is committed to maintaining an environment for objectivity and imaginative inquiry and for the original scholarship and research that ensure the production of new knowledge in the free exchange of facts, theories and ideas.