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The university is inaugurated after receiving its corporate rights from Pope Sixtus IV in February the same year.

Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Sweden, founded in 1477. It ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings.

The university rose to pronounced significance during the rise of Sweden as a great power at the end of the 16th century and was then given a relative financial stability with the large donation of King Gustavus Adolphus in the early 17th century. Uppsala also has an important historical place in Swedish national culture, identity and for the Swedish establishment: in historiography, literature, politics, and music. Many aspects of Swedish academic culture in general, such as the white student cap, originated in Uppsala. It shares some peculiarities, such as the student nation system, with Lund University and the University of Helsinki.

Uppsala belongs to the Coimbra Group of European universities. The university has nine faculties distributed over three "disciplinary domains". It has about 23,000 full-time students, and about 2,400 doctoral students. It has a teaching staff of roughly 4,000 (part-time and full-time) out of a total of 6,200 employees. Twenty-four percent of the 575 professors at the university are women. Of its turnover of 5.5 billion SEK (approx. 850 million USD) in 2012, 29% went to education on basic and advanced level, while 67% went to research and research programs.

Architecturally, Uppsala University has traditionally had a strong presence in the area around the cathedral on the western side of the River Fyris. Despite some more contemporary building developments further away from the centre, Uppsala's historic centre continues to be dominated by the presence of the university.