The University of Reading is a public university located in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 1926 by Royal Charter from King George V and was the only university to receive such a charter between the two world wars. The university is usually categorized as a red brick university, reflecting its original foundation in the 19th century. It has four major campuses. In the United Kingdom, the campuses on London Road and Whiteknights are based in the town of Reading itself, and Greenlands is based on the banks of the River Thames, Buckinghamshire. It also has a campus in Iskandar Puteri, Malaysia. The university has been arranged into 16 academic schools since 2016.

Reading was ranked 35th in the UK amongst multi-faculty institutions for the quality (GPA) of its research and 28th for its Research Power in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework.] In total, 98% of the University’s research is labelled as ‘internationally recognized’, 78% as ‘internationally excellent and 27% as ‘world leading’. Reading was the first university to win a Queen’s Award for Export Achievement, in 1989. The annual income of the institution for 2016–17 was £275.3 million of which £35.4 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £297.5 million In 2019 it was reported that the university was within the top 100 employers for LGBT+ people.