World's largest universities

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This list of worlds largest universities by enrollment includes total active enrollment across all campuses (including off campus study). Enrollment numbers listed are the sum of undergraduate and graduate students in active enrollment (eg. in first semester of academic year; not cumulative over the life of the institution). The initial list of the world's largest universities ('mega-universities') was developed by Sir John Daniel in his seminal text, 'The Mega-universities and Knowledge Media' (1996, Routledge). Since then, many of these universities have grown considerably in size, and others have joined the list. Universities included below confer degrees of bachelor-level or higher and either share a central board of governance and a single figurehead chancellor or confer degrees with the same institution name.

It should be noted that many of these universities, particularly those in the United States, are actually systems of separate university campuses and may not accurately represent a comparable study 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 is composed of several individual campuses statewide. All University of California campuses are entitled "University of California" and then denoted further by the campus location, such as "University of California, Santa Cruz". This is in contrast with the public university system of Iowa, for example, which is composed of many independently named universities, such as "Iowa State University" or "University of Iowa".

Rank Institution Location Founded Affiliation Enrollment
1 Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad, Pakistan 1974 Public 1,806,214 [1]
2 Indira Gandhi National Open University New Delhi, India 1985 Public 1.8 million [2]
3 Islamic Azad University Tehran, Iran 1982 Private 1.3 million [1]
4 Anadolu University Eskişehir, Turkey 1982 Public 884,081 [3] [4]
5 Bangladesh Open University Gazipur, Bangladesh 1992 Public 600,000 [5]
6 Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University Andhra Pradesh, India 1982 Public 450,000 [6]
7 State University of New York New York, United States 1948 Public 418,000 [7]
8 California State University California, United States 1857 Public 417,000 [8]
9 University System of Ohio Ohio, United States 2007 Public 400,000+ [9]
10 Universitas Terbuka Jakarta, Indonesia 1984 Public 350,000 [10]
11 Universidad de Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, Argentina 1821 Public 316,050 [11] [12]
12 Osmania University Hyderabad, India 1918 Public 300,000 [13]
13 State University System of Florida Florida, United States 1905 Public 299,570 (2007) [14]
14 National Autonomous University of Mexico Mexico City, Mexico 1551 Public 290,000 (Aug 14th, 2006) [15]
15 Tribhuvan University Kirtipur, Nepal 1959 Public 272,746 [16]
16 University of South Africa Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa 1873 Public 250,000 [17]
17 Instituto Politecnico Nacional Mexico City, Mexico 1936 Public 229,070 [18]
18 City University of New York New York City, United States 1847 Public 220,727 [19]
19 University of Delhi New Delhi, India 1922 Public 220,000 [20]
20 Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University Nashik, India 1989 Public 218,000
21 University of California California, United States 1869 Public 209,080 [21]
22 Open University Milton Keynes, England, United Kingdom 1969 Public 203,744 [22] [23]
23 University of Phoenix Phoenix, Arizona, United States 1976 Private 200,000 [24]
24 University of Calcutta Kolkata, West Bengal, India 1857 Public 200,000
25 Korea National Open University Korea 1982 Public 196,402 [25]
26 Universidade Estácio de Sá Brazil 1970 Private 186,000[2]
27 University of Texas Texas, United States 1881 Public 185,816 [26]
28 Payame Noor University Tehran, Iran 1987 Public 183,000
29 Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University Bangkok, Thailand 1978 Public 181,372
30 Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia Spain 1972 Public 180,000 [27] [28]
31 University of North Carolina North Carolina, United States 1789 Public 169,792 [29]
32 University of Wisconsin Wisconsin, United States 1848 Public 162,933 [30]
33 University of London London, England, United Kingdom 1836 Public 159,000 [31]
34 Cairo University Giza, Egypt 1933 Public 155,000 [32]
35 Madhya Pradesh Bhoj Open University Bhopal, India 1991 Public 150,000 [33]
36 University of Rome La Sapienza Rome, Italy 1303 Public 147,000
37 University System of Maryland Maryland, United States 1988 Public 144,363 [34]
38 Modern University for the Humanities Russia 1992 Public 140,000 [35]
39 Universidade Norte do Paraná Londrina, Paraná, Brazil 1972 Private 130,000 [36]
40 Centre national d'enseignement à distance France 1939 Public 120,000 [37]
41 Universidad Nacional de Córdoba Córdoba, Argentina 1613 Public 113,558 [38]
42 Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Pennsylvania, United States 1982 Public >109,000 [39]
43 Texas A&M University Texas, United States 1876 Public 103,449 [40]
44 Shanghai Television University Shanghai, China 1960 Public 101,218 [41]
45 University of Bologna Bologna, Italy 1088 Public >100,000 [42]
46 Universiti Teknologi MARA Shah Alam, Malaysia 1956 Public 100,000 [43]
47 Universidad Complutense de Madrid Madrid, Spain 1499 Public 98,142 [44]
48 Indiana University Indiana, United States 1820 Public 98,543 [45]
49 Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey Monterrey, Mexico 1943 Private 95,777 [46]
50 (joint) Netaji Subhas Open University Kolkata, West Bengal, India 1997 Public 95,027 [47]
50 (joint) University of Wales Wales, UK 1893 Public 95,000 [48]

[edit] References

  1. ^ On the main page of the IAU website (in Persian), the chancellor of the university cites the student population as 1 million 300 thousand.
  2. ^ Schwartzman, Simon (January-April, 2006). "Brazil’s Leading University: between Intelligentsia, World Standards and Social Inclusion" (PDF). Estudos Avançados (56). 

[edit] See also