List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment


This list of largest universities by enrollment in the world includes total active enrollment across all campuses and off-campus study. The enrollment numbers listed are the sum of undergraduate and graduate students in active enrollment. The universities included below confer degrees of bachelor-level or higher and either share a central board of governance and a single chancellor or president or confer degrees with the same institution name.

Largest university networks

Many of these universities, especially those in the United States, are systems of individual campuses and may not accurately represent a comparable student body. For example, the enrollment listed for the University of California is the population of the entire student body in the University of California system, which consists of several individual campuses throughout the state. All University of California campuses are referred to as "The University of California" and then further identified by the campus location, such as "University of California, Irvine". Other states organize their public universities differently, further complicating direct comparisons.
RankInstitutionLocationContinentFoundedAffiliationDistance/In-PersonEnrollmentRef
1

Individual universities ranked by European Higher Education Sector Observatory

The list includes the most enrolled institutions in the 2021–22 academic year from over 2,300 universities collaborating with the European Education and Culture Executive Agency of the European Union. Three types of classifications for institutions are used: public university, private government-funding dependent university and private university.