The University of British Columbia, commonly referred to as UBC, is a Canadian public research university with campuses in the Greater Vancouver area and in Kelowna, British Columbia. The 402 ha (4 km²) main campus in the Greater Vancouver area is located in the University Endowment Lands on Point Grey, a peninsula about 10 km from downtown Vancouver, with smaller speciality and satellite campuses located at Great Northern Way and Robson Street, both in Vancouver proper. The 105 ha (1 km²) Okanagan campus is situated about 20 minutes from downtown Kelowna. While the originating legislation created UBC on March 7, 1908, the first day of lectures was September 30, 1915. On September 22, 1925, lectures began on the new Point Grey campus. The university is the oldest in British Columbia and has the largest enrolment with over 41,000 students at its Vancouver and Okanagan campuses combined.

In the 2009 Academic Ranking of World Universities, UBC placed 2nd in Canada, and 36th in the world. In 2006, Newsweek magazine ranked UBC 2nd in Canada and 31st in the world. In 2009, the Times Higher Education Supplement ranked UBC as 3rd in Canada and 40th in the world (Social Sciences 13th, Life & Biomedicine 16th, Natural Sciences 20th, Arts & Humanities 22nd, Engineering & IT 17th).

The UBC library, which comprises 5.9 million books and journals, is the second-largest research library in Canada.