Saint Louis University (
SLU, ) is a
private research university with campuses in
St. Louis,
Missouri, United States and
Madrid,
Spain. Founded in 1818 by the Most Reverend
Louis Guillaume Valentin Dubourg, SLU is the oldest university west of the
Mississippi River and the second-oldest
Jesuit university in the nation. It is one of 28 member institutions of the
Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. The university is accredited by the
North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. SLU's athletic teams compete in
NCAA's
Division I and the
Atlantic 10 Conference. It has a current enrollment of 13,505 students, including 8,687 undergraduate students and 4,818 graduate students, representing all 50 states and more than 70 foreign countries. Its average class size is 23.8 and the student-faculty ratio is 12:1.