Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (Kiel University) is a public research university in Kiel, the capital of the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Founded in 1665 by Duke Christian Albrecht of Holstein-Gottorp, it is the oldest, largest and most prestigious university in the state and one of the longest-established institutions of higher learning in Germany. More than three and a half centuries after its founding, the university remains the intellectual centre of the region, drawing students from across Germany and around the world.

Today the university educates roughly 25,000 students across a broad academic spectrum organised into faculties spanning theology, law, medicine, the arts and humanities, business, economics and social sciences, agricultural and nutritional sciences, mathematics and natural sciences, and engineering. This breadth allows Kiel University to combine long-standing traditions in the humanities and law with strengths in the experimental and applied sciences.

Given its position on the Baltic Sea, the university is particularly recognised for marine and ocean research, an area in which it collaborates closely with neighbouring research institutes in the city. Its wider research profile also reaches into fields such as life sciences, precision medicine and inflammation research, nanoscience and the study of past societies, several of which are pursued through large, interdisciplinary research clusters.

Students at Christian-Albrechts-Universität can choose from a wide range of degree programmes, with 27 programmes currently featured on Stuudy across bachelor's and master's levels. Beyond the classroom, the university offers a full campus experience in a maritime city known for sailing and its annual Kiel Week festival, giving international students both a strong academic environment and a distinctly northern German student life.