It is a provider of undergraduate, postgraduate, and higher research degrees with campuses in Bankstown, Blacktown, Campbelltown, Hawkesbury, Liverpool, Parramatta, Penrith, and Surabaya.

At Parramatta, Western Sydney University owns and has renovated the Female Orphan School building, the foundation stone of which was laid by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1813.

[citation needed] A performing arts school had been established at UWS's predecessor, the Nepean College of Advanced Education, in 1980.

In 1997, a student-led organisation, CentreStage, was created by second-year performance students as a fund-raising body to cover the costs of staging and promoting Theatre Nepean's graduation productions not only at the Playhouse at the Kingswood campus and the Centre for Contemporary Performance at the Werrington South campus.

[23] In 2004, UWS joined with Metro Screen and SLICE TV to successfully bid for Sydney's first permanent community television licence.

[24] In 2007, Theatre Nepean was suspended indefinitely,[18] and the Australian Academy of Dramatic Art (AADA; now Australian Institute of Music - Dramatic Arts, or AIMDA) began a similar training program the following year, aiming at producing graduates who are all-round theatre-makers.

[citation needed] In 2011 and 2012, Professors Roy Tasker[29] and James Arvanitakis respectively, were announced as the Prime Minister's Australian University Teacher of the Year.

[31] Many students criticised the re-branding, calling it a waste of money that stripped the university community of its established identity.

[citation needed] Parramatta campus courses include occupation fields like Science, Business, and Law.

It also hosts their Science courses in modern buildings near to the Rydalmere campus at a site formerly used by quarantine authorities, CSIRO, Amdel Sugar, and the Biological and Chemical Research Institute laboratories.

The campus includes a modern cafeteria area, a new library, a full-size football oval, and the MARCS Institute.

In 2017 the university announced plans to sell off land held on the Nirimba site, previously set aside for student accommodation.

In 2007, the School of Medicine was established and began offering the Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree for the first time in the university's history.

It is hoped that many of the School's graduates will practice in the Western Sydney region, in order to redress the shortage of healthcare professionals in the area.

[47][48] The campus is home to the UWS Rotary Observatory, designed by Dr. Ragbir Bhathal, consisting of two observing domes of 4.5m and 2.9m diameter respectively,[49] opened on 15 July 2000.

Hawkesbury campus facilities include research labs, farmland, aquacultural (not operational) and equine facilities, residential halls and cottages, a conference centre, religious centres, a campus social hub called Stable Square, featuring cafeterias, a bar (not operational), a music room and a large collection of Hawkesbury Agricultural College memorabilia.

The experiment consists of twelve giant chambers with individual, living trees in controlled environments which will help predict what will happen to the Australian bush over the next century.

The opening of WSU Surabaya on 9 November 2023, was attended by Indonesian Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology Nadiem Makarim, Australian Minister of Education Jason Clare, East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa, Western Sydney University Chancellor Jennifer Westacott, and Vice-Chancellor and President Barney Glover.

[12][57] The fourth Chancellor of the university, appointed in January 2023 is Jennifer Westacott, AO a former senior public servant and partner at KPMG.

The Badanami Centre for Indigenous Education provides support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

With the passage of Voluntary Student Unionism legislation, UWS agreed to fund the organisations, but at a substantially reduced level.

[citation needed] Western Sydney University has on-campus accommodation in the form of the UWS Village located adjacent to its Parramatta Campus.

[citation needed] The winner of the 2007 Miles Franklin Literary Award, Alexis Wright, was a UWS Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2010.

[88] In 2011, author Anita Heiss was Adjunct Associate Professor at the university, attached to the Badanami Centre for Indigenous Education (see below).

[89] Award-winning Australian author Gail Jones was a professor in the university's Writing and Society Research Centre as of 2019[update].

[91][92] Between 2011 and 2016, there were 28 officially reported cases of sexual abuse and harassment on campus, resulting in no expulsions, no suspensions, and 7 warnings.

[93] The 2017 Australian Human Rights Commission report on sexual assault and harassment gave figures substantially higher than this.

An employee, as well as eminent scientists,[95] criticised the support of the university for complementary medicines such as homeopathy, acupuncture, TCM, and energy healing etc.

[99][100] The National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM), a part of Western Sydney University, won the Bent Spoon Award in November 2017.

[103][104] This led to a number of articles appearing in the media taking an in-depth look at the National Institute of Complementary Medicine.