The main McMaster campus is on 121 hectares (300 acres) of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Gardens.

[12] The Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec controlled the university until it became a privately chartered, publicly funded non-denominational institution in 1957.

[2] The new university, housed in McMaster Hall in Toronto, was sponsored by the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec as an undergraduate institution for its clergy and adherents.

[12] The Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec secured $1.5 million, while the citizens of Hamilton raised an additional $500,000 to help finance the move.

[24] Since denominational institutions could not receive public funds, the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec decided to reorganize the university, creating two federated colleges.

[27] In 1950, the university had completed the construction of three academic buildings for the sciences, all designed by local architect William Russell Souter.

[30] In 1965, with the support of the Ontario government, the university established a medical school and teaching hospital, graduating its first class of physicians in 1972.

[36] It is connected to the Life Sciences building and the Michael DeGroote Centre for Learning & Discovery, which houses many well-funded research groups in areas of genetics, infectious diseases, and several specific conditions.

[13] The collection includes works by Gustave Courbet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Walter Sickert and Vincent van Gogh.

Consideration for the new building began in 2004, when McMaster University had announced its initial intent to construct a new arts- and technology-intensive campus in partnership with the city of Burlington.

[67] McMaster purchased a large industrial park three kilometres east of its main Hamilton campus in 2005 with the intention of creating an array of research facilities for the development of advanced manufacturing and materials, biotechnology, automotive, and nanotechnology.

[79] Ex officio governors of the Board include the university's chancellor, president, and the chairman of the board-senate committee on long-range planning.

[87] McMaster's revenue comes from endowment income, gifts, fees, and annual grants from the City of Hamilton, the Province of Ontario, and the Government of Canada.

[32] In the 2024-25 academic year, the largest source of revenue for the university was tuition fees, followed by operating grants provided by the government.

The financial aid provided may come in the form of loans, grants, bursaries, scholarships, fellowships, debt reduction, interest relief, and work programs.

[118] In an employability survey published by the New York Times in October 2011, when CEOs and chairmen were asked to select the top universities which they recruited from, McMaster placed 61st in the world, and fourth in Canada.

The Faculty of Health Science oversees $130 million a year in research, much of it conducted by scientists and physicians who teach in the medical school.

A McMaster research group led by David Sackett and later Gordon Guyatt had been credited for establishing the methodologies used in evidence-based medicine.

[138] The swimming pool reactor is used for research, educational, and commercial applications such as neutron radiography, and medical radioisotope production; including 60 per cent of the world's supply of iodine-125, an isotope used in nuclear medicine to treat prostate cancer.

There are more than 300 student organizations and clubs, covering a wide range of interests such as academics, culture, religion, social issues, and recreation.

The university's team sports programs include baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, rugby, soccer, swimming, volleyball, ringette, and water polo.

The university has a number of sports facilities, including the David Braley Athletic Centre and the Ron Joyce Stadium.

[11][182] In 1997, the board of governors introduced a simplified shield design, which recognized the tradition of McMaster's heraldry while improving the quality of print and electronic reproduction.

A golden maple leaf is situated on each side of the book, signifying the university's charter was granted by the Province of Ontario.

[16][189] Alumnus James Orbinski accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 on behalf of Doctors Without Borders as the organization's president.

[16] Prominent alumni in the field of science include Douglas L. Coleman, who discovered leptin;[190] Richard Bader, noted for his work on the atoms in molecules theory;[191] Harold E. Johns, who pioneered the use of cobalt-60 in the treatment of cancer;[192] Karl Clark, who pioneered the separation method to extract bitumen from the oil sands;[193] and Peter R. Jennings, computer programmer and developer of Microchess.

[194][195] Notable faculty members include chemist Ronald Gillespie, who helped shape VSEPR theory,[196] as well as David Sackett and Gordon Guyatt, whose research team was credited for establishing the methodologies used in evidence-based medicine.

[129][130] Notable alumni and faculty members in the field of social sciences include Harold Innis, who helped shape communication theory and the staples thesis,[197] and sociologist Henry Giroux, one of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy.

[216] A number of McMaster alumni have also had successful sports careers, including Syl Apps of the Toronto Maple Leafs;[217] and NHL coach Roger Neilson.

Such alumni include Eugene Levy,[219] Martin Short,[220] Jonathan Frid,[221] Ivan Reitman,[222] Dave Thomas,[223] and Max Kerman of Canadian rock band Arkells.