São Paulo State University (UNESP, Portuguese: Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho") is one of the six public universities of the Brazilian state of São Paulo (the others are USP, UNICAMP, UNIFESP, UFABC, UFSCar and FATEC). UNESP is part of the state’s higher education system and the only Brazilian member of the Compostela Group of Universities. It is one of the few Latin American universities to be constantly listed as one of the best universities worldwide.

UNESP has a combined student body of over 45,000 spread among its 23 campuses. The first of them is the Araraquara Pharmacy and Odontology Faculty, founded in 1923 and incorporated by the state of São Paulo in 1956. Before the university’s official foundation in 1976, its original 12 campuses were public independent faculties.

With a budget of R$2.6 billion in 2015, UNESP currently has 33 teaching, research, and extension units in 23 campuses spread across inland and coastal cities, as well as in the city of São Paulo. It also has 30 libraries, two hospitals, three animal hospitals, five farms, and seven complementary units.