The University of Sunderland is a public research university located in Sunderland in the North East of England. Its predecessor, Sunderland Technical College, was established as a municipal training college in 1901. It gained university status in 1992. It now has campuses in Sunderland, London and Hong Kong, and has about 20,000 students.

Sunderland is a port city in Northern England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre, within the Metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, the Historic County of Durham, and the North East Combined Authority area. The city is 10 miles (16 km) from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on the River Wear's mouth to the North Sea. The river also flows through Durham city roughly 12 miles (19 km) south-west of the city's centre.