Fairleigh Dickinson University is a private university with its main campuses in New Jersey. Founded in 1942, Fairleigh Dickinson University currently offers more than 100 individual degree programs to its students. In addition to its two campuses in New Jersey, the university also has a campus in Canada, a campus in the United Kingdom, and an online platform. Fairleigh Dickinson University is New Jersey's largest private institution of higher education, with over 11,000 students.

Fairleigh Dickinson University was founded in 1942 as a junior college by Dr. Peter Sammartino and wife Sally, and was named after an early benefactor Colonel Fairleigh S. Dickinson, co-founder of Becton Dickinson. Its original campus was located in Rutherford, NJ. By 1948, Fairleigh Dickinson College expanded its curriculum to offer a four-year program when the GI Bill and veterans' money encouraged it to redesignate itself. In that same year, the school received accreditation from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. In 1958, the same year the university acquired the former Twombly-Vanderbilt estate in Madison and Florham, the institution was recognized as Fairleigh Dickinson University by the New Jersey State Board of Education. Fairleigh Dickinson University is a member of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

Fairleigh Dickinson University has four campuses: two in New Jersey (Madison/Florham Park and Teaneck/Hackensack), one in Vancouver, British Columbia, and one in South East England, as well as an online platform.

Fairleigh Dickinson's national student body consists of a total 12,247 students, 9,199 of whom are undergraduates and the remaining 3,048 are graduate students with a full-time equivalence (FTE) of 8,165.4, making it the largest private institution in the state of New Jersey. FDU also has over 1,200 international students from over 85 countries around the world ranking it 15th nationally among their Carnegie peer group. The majority of international students attend the Metropolitan Campus and FDU Vancouver which was founded primarily to educate international students. FDU Vancouver is the first American owned and operated institution in British Columbia to receive University status.