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an institution of learning of the highest level, having a college of liberal arts and a program of graduate studies together with several professional schools, as of theology, law, medicine, and engineering, and authorized to confer both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Continental European universities usually have only graduate or professional schools.
Contemporary Examples

Clashes broke out after university staff prevented Israeli forces from entering the campus.
Israeli Forces Clash with Al-Quds University Students Orly Halpern September 8, 2013

Sticks and stones may break your bones but, as some university of Oregon campus cops learned recently, names can prompt a lawsuit.
The First Amendment Works, But Does it Work Blue? Kevin Bleyer July 18, 2014

After high school, he moved to the jungles of Peru, working and studying with a professor he knew from the university of Kansas.
A Day in the Life of a Danger Junkie Abigail Pesta November 18, 2012

Now, Sclove is fighting back even harder, by filing federal complaints against the university.
Brown U. Hit With Federal Complaint After Sex Assault Scandal Olivia Nuzzi May 22, 2014

Debora Spar, the new president of Barnard, has been hired to bring a new dynamism to New York’s premier women’s university.
Big Woman on Campus Kate Taylor October 21, 2008

Historical Examples

After the dissolution of the university of Wittenberg his father was transferred to Halle in 1815.
Heroes of the Telegraph J. Munro

Mr. Gladstone was again returned unopposed for the university of Oxford.
The Grand Old Man Richard B. Cook

I was a pupil at the university and attended his class in physics.
The Seed of the Toc-Toc Birds Francis Flagg

I think it’s a shame that girls are not allowed to go to the university; don’t you?
In the Midst of Alarms Robert Barr

As has been seen, the university was to be but a part of a complete state system.
The University of Michigan Wilfred Shaw

noun (pl) -ties
an institution of higher education having authority to award bachelors’ and higher degrees, usually having research facilities
the buildings, members, staff, or campus of a university
n.

c.1300, “institution of higher learning,” also “body of persons constituting a university,” from Anglo-French université, Old French universitei (13c.), from Medieval Latin universitatem (nominative universitas), in Late Latin “corporation, society,” from Latin, “the whole, aggregate,” from universus “whole, entire” (see universe). In the academic sense, a shortening of universitas magistrorum et scholarium “community of masters and scholars;” superseded studium as the word for this.