The University of North Carolina at Wilmington is a public university located in Wilmington, North Carolina. It opened September 4, 1947, as Wilmington College, a junior college under the control of the New Hanover County Board of Education. Classes were held at Isaac Bear Elementary School. It became state-supported in 1958 upon joining the newly formed North Carolina community college system. In 1961 it moved to its present campus. On July 1, 1963, it became a four-year institution. It adopted its current name July 1, 1969, upon becoming part of the Consolidated University of North Carolina, since 1972 called the University of North Carolina System. Its first master's programs were authorized in 1977, and in the spring of 1985 it was designated a Comprehensive Level I University.

As of 2003, UNCW has an enrollment of over 11,000 students. It offers seventy-one bachelor's degrees, twenty master's degrees, and a Ph.D. in marine biology. In addition to the College of Arts and Sciences (undergraduate) and the Graduate School, it has three professional schools: the Cameron School of Business, the Donald R. Watson School of Education, and the School of Nursing.

The Aquarius underwater laboratory operated by the National Undersea Research Center at UNCW.