Founded in 1209, Cambridge University is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's third-oldest surviving university. Cambridge was formed from a variety of institutions, which include 31 constituent colleges and over 100 academic departments organized into six Schools. The university occupies buildings throughout the town, most of which are of historical importance. For over 150 years, the University of Cambridge has valued its close relationship with India. From the mid-nineteenth century, when the first students from India arrived in Cambridge, scholarship and lasting friendships have been the foundation of academic partnership.

Cambridge has many notable alumni, including several eminent mathematicians, scientists, politicians, and 90 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with it. Three Indian Prime Ministers, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, were educated at Cambridge, and in turn, the University is now home to distinguished academics from India, including Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta (Economics), Professor Ashok Venkitaraman (Cancer Research), and Nobel laureate Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (Molecular Biology). Today the University has grown to around 17,500 students (7,000 of whom are graduate students), and 3,000 teaching and administrative staff. Of the graduate students, 50 percent come from overseas, and well over a third are women.