Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James Buchanan Duke established the Duke Endowment, at which time the institution changed its name to honor his deceased father, Washington Duke.

The university's campus spans over 8,600 acres on three contiguous campuses in Durham as well as a marine lab in Beaufort. Duke's main campus designed largely by architect Julian
incorporates Gothic architecture with the 210-foot (64 m) Duke Chapel at the campus' center and highest point of elevation. The first-year-populated East Campus contains Georgian-style architecture, while the main Gothic-style West Campus 1.5 miles away is adjacent to the Medical Center. Duke is the 7th wealthiest private university in America with $11.4 billion in cash and investments in fiscal year 2014.

Duke's research expenditures in the 2014 fiscal year were $1.037 billion, the seventh largest in the nation. In 2014, Thomson Reuters named 32 Duke professors to its list of Highly Cited Researchers, making it fourth globally in terms of primary affiliations. Duke also ranks 5th among national universities to have produced Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, and Udall Scholars. Ten Nobel laureates and three Turing Award winners are affiliated with the university. Duke's sports teams compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference and the basketball team is renowned for having won five NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships, the most recent in 2015.

University of Washington

The University of Washington, commonly referred to as simply Washington, UW, or informally U-Dub, is a public flagship research university based in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast and features one of the most highly regarded medical schools in the world.

The university has three campuses: the primary and largest in the University District of Seattle and two others in Tacoma and Bothell. Its operating expenses and research budget for fiscal year 2014–15 is expected to be $6.4 billion. The UW occupies over 500 buildings, with over 20 million gross square footage of space, including the University of Washington Plaza, consisting of the 325-foot  UW Tower and conference center.

Washington is a member of the Association of American Universities. Its research budget is among the highest in the United States. In athletics, the university competes in the NCAA Division I Pac-12 Conference

Uppsala university

Founded in 1477, the historic Uppsala University was the first to be founded within both Sweden and the whole of Scandinavia.

Now ranked among the best research universities in the world, Uppsala comprises nine faculties and over 45,000 students, 12% of which are international. It boasts strong strategic links with other global universities and runs exchange programmes with approximately 500 universities worldwide.

Most undergraduate degrees at the university are taught in Swedish, although a few courses, mainly at postgraduate level, are taught in English.

Uppsala is a multi-campus university with sites that include the Biomedical Centre, one of Europe’s largest for life sciences, located on an old military base, and another on the island of Gotland, a UNESCO World Heritage site and popular Swedish holiday destination with miles of pristine beaches.

The university’s long history has given rise to a multitude of prominent scholars, including Carl Linnaeus, an 18th century Uppsala professor who created the system for classifying nature that’s still in use today, and Anders Celsius, an astronomy professor, who devised the Celsius temperature scale.

Eight Nobel Prize winners are associated with the university in total and its alumni include the IT entrepreneur Niklas Zennström, best known for founding Skype.

Uppsala is also famous for housing unique collections of cultural, artistic and scientific interest. Its various museums, including the Museum of Evolution and the Museum Gustavianum, situated in the university's oldest building, include artefacts dating back as far as the Viking period.

The university’s library is the largest in Sweden and its botanical gardens, which preserve an authentic 18th century environment, are the country’s oldest.

Uppsala itself is the fourth largest city in Sweden and a major cultural centre that blends tradition with modernity.

As a major historical landmark, Uppsala university is commonly referenced in Swedish literature and makes an appearance in many films, including Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.