The main campus is on hectares acres of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates three satellite campuses and four affiliated university colleges. Waterloo operates the largest post-secondary co-operative education program in the world, with over 20, undergraduate students enrolled in the university's co-op program.
The institution originates from the Waterloo College Associate Faculties, established on 4 April ; a semi-autonomous entity of Waterloo College , which was an affiliate of the University of Western Ontario.
It grew substantially over the next decade, adding a faculty of arts in , and the College of Optometry of Ontario now the School of Optometry and Vision Science , which moved from Toronto in The university is a co-educational institution, with approximately 36, undergraduate and 6, postgraduate students enrolled there in While the main source of income for higher education in Ontario at the time was the provincial government, the Ontario government made it clear it would not contribute to denominational colleges and universities.
Hagey soon became aware of the steps undertaken by McMaster University to make itself eligible for some provincial funding by establishing Hamilton College as a separate, non-denominational college affiliated with the university. Needles proposed a different approach towards education, including both studies in the classroom and training in industry that would eventually become the basis of the university's co-operative education program. On 25 January , the Associated Faculties announced the purchase of over 74 hectares acres of land west of Waterloo College.
By the end of the same year, the Associated Faculties opened its first building on the site, the Chemical Engineering Building. This applies to all fields โ not just the field of science. In , the Legislative Assembly of Ontario passed an act that formally split the Associated Faculties from Waterloo College, and re-established it as the University of Waterloo. The president, appointed by the board, was to act as the institution's chief executive officer and act as a liaison between the two groups.
