As of Fall 2019, there were 24,485 undergraduate students and 8,333 graduate students, for an enrollment total of 32,818, making it the second largest public university in the state after Utah Valley University. Graduate studies include the S.J. Quinney College of Law and the School of Medicine, Utah's first medical school. It is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU) and is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". According to the National Science Foundation, the university spent $552 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 45th in the nation. In addition, the university's Honors College has been reviewed among 100 leading national Honors Colleges in the U.S. The university's health care system includes four hospitals, including the University of Utah Hospital and Huntsman Cancer Institute, along with twelve community clinics and specialty centers such as the Moran Eye Center. The university's athletic teams, the Utes, participate in NCAA Division I athletics (FBS for football) as a member of the Pac-12 Conference.

Twenty-two Rhodes Scholars, four Nobel Prize winners, three Turing Award winners, eight MacArthur Fellows, various Pulitzer Prize winners, two astronauts, Gates Cambridge Scholars, and Churchill Scholars have been affiliated with the university as students, researchers, or faculty members in its history.