The University of Massachusetts Amherst (otherwise known as UMass Amherst) is a university in Amherst, Massachusetts. It is the main campus of the University of Massachusetts system, the others being UMass Boston, UMass Dartmouth, UMass Lowell, and the UMass Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts.

UMass Amherst is also associated with four other area colleges in a collaboration known as the Five Colleges. The school colors are maroon and white, sometimes replaced by gray. The mascot is the Minuteman, and is represented by a man in the school colors wearing typical minuteman costume. The school's sports teams participate in the NCAA's Division I, and are members of the Atlantic 10 Conference and the Hockey East.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst is classified as a Research I university by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, reflecting the breadth of the University's programs, including offerings of over 90 undergraduate and 65 graduate areas of study. The University has distinguished itself in several areas, offering nationally recognized programs in, among other areas, linguistics (especially semantics), computer science, polymer science, creative writing, Latin paedagogy, social thought and political economy (STPEC), and labor studies. The University's library  is the tallest library in the world, and is home of the memoirs and papers of the distinguished African-American activist W.E.B. DuBois as well as being the depository for other important collections, such as the papers of the late Congressman Silvio O. Conte.

The University is home to its own newspaper (The Daily Collegian ), radio station (WMUA 91.1 ), and television station (UVC-TV 19 )—all are almost totally student-run.