Wright State University is a public university located in Fairborn, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton. Its current president is Kim Goldenberg, M.D.

It began in 1964 as the Dayton Branch Campus of both Miami University and the Ohio State University. At that time it comprised only a single building, Allyn Hall. It was named for Stanley Allyn, then president of National Cash Register and one of the university's founders.

In 1965, an act of the Ohio General Assembly made the university a state university, contingent on enrollment. After several names were considered, the state legislature decided upon Wright State University, to honor native Dayton sons, the Wright Brothers. (Wright State is the only state university in Ohio that is named after a person rather than after a geographical jurisdiction or feature.) On October 1, 1967, the university met the enrollment criteria as defined by the legislature, officially making the University independent.

As of fall 2003 according to statistics published by the university, it had a total enrollment of 16,729 (including 1,061 at the branch Lake Campus, located in Celina, Ohio, near St. Marys). Wright State offers 155 degree programs, including 46 graduate and professional programs (including schools of medicine and professional psychology). Wright State students are generally commuters, but many choose to live in campus-owned housing, including the dormitory style housing of the Woods, Hamilton Hall, and the Honors Community, or in the apartment style housing of College Park, Forest Lane, and the Village.

Wright State is a compact campus, with several academic buildings constructed following Allyn Hall. Key buildings on campus include the Founders' Quadrangle (quad) buildings, comprised of Allyn Hall (home to the College of Education and Human Services), Millett Hall (named for John Millett, former president of Miami University, and home of the College of Liberal Arts), Fawcett Hall (named after Novice Fawcett, president of Ohio State), and Oelman Hall (named after Robert Oelman, first president of the Board of Trustees, and the home of the College of Science and Mathematics). Allyn and Millett halls have recently undergone extensive rehabilitations.

Other buildings include Rike Hall (named after the founder of the Rike Kumler company, since merged into Federated Department Stores) (Raj Soin College of Business), University Hall (administrative offices and the College of Nursing and Health), the Creative Arts Center, the Mathematical and Microbiological Sciences Building, the Fritz and Dolores Russ Engineering Center (College of Engineering and Computer Science), and the Student Union. The main university Library is the Paul Laurence Dunbar library.

Wright State University also has the Ervin J. Nutter Center, a multi-purpose arena located on campus. Opened in 1990, the Nutter Center is consistently considered to be one of the top arenas of its size. The venue is used for concerts and sporting events (including Wright State men's and women's basketball, using the nickname "Raiders").