About the University at Buffalo

Founded in 1846 as a private medical college located in downtown Buffalo, the University at Buffalo (UB) joined the public State University of New York in 1962 and has grown to become the largest and most comprehensive university in the SUNY system. Widely regarded as SUNY’s flagship and its primary center for professional education and training, the University at Buffalo also was the first of the two public universities in the state to earn membership in the pre-eminent Association of American Universities, one of only 59 research-intensive universities in the United States to hold that distinction.

UB enrolls more than 29,000 students and offers more than 300 academic programs at the baccalaureate, masters, professional and doctoral levels in its 12 decanal units. The university also is home to more than 100 research centers and institutes, and its current annual research expenditures are just shy of $350 million. UB’s libraries hold 4 million volumes in seven major units and an exceptionally wide array of digital information resources.

Our Campuses

University at Buffalo students live and learn on three very different but complementary campuses: the North Campus, in a bustling, inner-ring suburb; the South Campus, in a historic urban neighborhood; and the Downtown Campus, in Buffalo’s dynamic medical corridor.

Photo of UB's Center for the Arts, North Campus.

UB's Center for the Arts, North Campus.

Our Academic Heart

UB’s North Campus, located just outside the city in Amherst, N.Y., is where most of the university’s core academic programs are offered. Opened in the early 1970s, it is the largest of our three campuses, encompassing cutting-edge academic and research spaces, student residence halls and apartments, award-winning dining facilities, the Student Union and athletic venues. Abundant green spaces, including a recreational lake and a 65-acre living woods, complement the built environment.

Photo of Hayes Hall, UB's South Campus.

Hayes Hall on UB's South Campus.

A Historic Gem

UB’s South Campus is a Western New York landmark dating back to the 1920s. Situated in a leafy residential neighborhood in North Buffalo, the 153-acre parcel is home to classic ivy-covered buildings and grassy, tree-filled quads along with high-rise residence halls and innovative research and teaching facilities. The schools of Architecture and Planning, Dental Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Public Health and Health Professions are all located here.

Photo of construction of UB's new Medical school.

Construction of UB's new Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Rising Biomedical Hub

The pillar of our Downtown Campus is the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, which moved there in 2017 following construction of a state-of-the-art building at Main and High streets. Most of our other Downtown Campus entities—including the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, the Clinical and Research Institute on Addictions, and the Clinical and Translational Research Center—are located near the Jacobs School in Buffalo’s medical corridor, a quickly growing hub of clinical care, research and education.