The University of Sydney (informally Sydney Uni, USyd or simply Sydney) is the oldest university in Australia. It was established in Sydney in 1850. It is a member of Australia's "Group of Eight" universities that are highly ranked in terms of their research performance. In 2008, the University had 46,054 students and 3,081 (full-time equivalent) academic staff making it the second largest (behind Monash University) in Australia.

The University of Sydney has been ranked amongst the top 100 universities in the world by various sources. The UK’s Times Higher Education Supplement World University Rankings published in October 2008 ranked the University 17th in the world for Arts and Humanities, 27th for social sciences, 41st for technology, 44th for natural sciences and 27th for biomedicine, making it maintain the 3rd highest position, following The Australian National University (ANU) and The University of Melbourne in terms of the Academic Peer Reviews (rankings on 5 major disciplines) among Australian universities.. The University of Sydney as a whole has been consistently ranked between 31st and 40th worldwide and 3rd nationwide (following ANU's 16-23rd and The University of Melbourne's 19-27th)from 2004 to 2007 in that same publication's league table. In addition, The University of Sydney has also been consistently ranked between 97th and 150th worldwide and the 3rd (following ANU's 50-59th and The University of Melbourne's 73-82nd) among Australian universities from 2004 to 2008 by The Academic Ranking of World Universities published by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Furthermore, according to the international standing of Australian universities and rankings on disciplines published by The Melbourne Institute , The University of Sydney has been ranked 3rd , just behind The University of Melbourne and ANU among Australian universities. Moreover, in the recent survey published by The Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) , which used a rigorous ranking methodology of evaluating the performance on the scientific papers of the university, ranked The University of Sydney top 100 worldwide and second only to The University of Melbourne within Australia.

In another recent survey Times Higher Education Supplement worldwide rankings of universities released in November 2008, the University of Sydney was ranked 37th overall, which was the first time from 2004 to beat The University of Melbourne(which was ranked 38th, one position behind The University of Sydney) and gained its position as second highest ranked Australian university behind Australian National University (16th).

Centred on the Oxbridge-inspired grounds of the University's Main Campus on the south-western outskirts of Sydney's CBD, the University has a number of campuses as a result of mergers over the past 20 years. The University of Sydney is a member of the Group of Eight, Academic Consortium 21, the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) and the Worldwide Universities Network.

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