The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on 455 hectares (1,120 acres) of land near the forks of the Thames River in the community of Perthshire. The university was founded on 7 March 1878 by Bishop Isaac Hellmuth of the Anglican Diocese of Huron as “The Western University of London Ontario”. It incorporated Huron College and three theological colleges which had already existed in London. Initially, the university grew steadily, adding new buildings and expanding its enrolment until it reached its present size at around 32,000 students.
UWO has been ranked consistently as one of Canada’s top comprehensive universities. In 2019, Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked UWO 107th in their list of the world’s best universities; this placed it 4th among Canadian comprehensive universities and 1st in Southwestern Ontario. In 2016 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranked UWO 119th globally out of a field of 26,000 institutions; this placed it 5th among Canadian comprehensive universities and 2nd in Southwestern Ontario. In 2015/16 Maclean’s Magazine ranked UWO 6th out of 15 comprehensive universities nationally; this placed it 3rd among all Canadian research-intensive doctoral institutions with medical schools after McGill University and McMaster University but ahead of Queen’s University and the Universityof Toronto .Research Infosource Inc.’s ranking for 2018 placed UWO 8th among Canada’s Top 50 Research Universities with medical schools; this was down from 4th place in 2017 but still ahead Uof T ,McGill ,and McMaster . According to Thomson Reuters’ Webometrics Ranking system for January 2019 ,UWO ranks 1250 globally while its national rank stands at 95 .
In terms not just restricted to academia ,in 2010 MoneySense magazine rated UWO as Canada’s 10 best value university .