university
On second or subsequent references, lowercase university when referring to Washington University in St. Louis, as well as when referring to other universities.
See Washington University in St. Louis.
For other universities, use their names as provided on their official websites. The words College and University should be included in first reference to other schools but are usually dropped on second reference. On second reference, use widely used acronyms or syncopations of school names, if applicable: MIT; UCLA; Penn State; etc. In first reference, do not use a parenthetical reference after such widely used university acronyms or syncopations; but for some universities, it may be necessary: University of Alabama (UA); University of Dayton (UD).
Do not use The before the name of a university: Johns Hopkins University, NOT: The Johns Hopkins University. Exception: The Rockefeller University. For many universities, though, particularly those whose names have University of constructions, the should be included before the name: He attended the University of Arkansas for four years; NOT: He attended University of Arkansas for four years.
There frequently is no need to provide the name of the city where a college or university is located. Use the city name if omission would result in confusion as to where a college or university is located: University of California, Berkeley (city included because there are numerous universities of California); but Yale University (no need to include its New Haven, Conn., location because there’s only one Yale University). City and state names should be used with lesser-known universities: Jones was a professor of history at Saint Michael’s College in Burlington, Vt.
For state universities, there is usually no need to include the city if the main or primary state university is being referred to: University of Texas for the main university in that state’s system, in Austin; but University of Texas at Dallas for that particular university.
Special attention to clarity should be used when referring to any university with the word Washington in its name.
In sports copy, use of other universities’ athletic nicknames is acceptable on second reference, but only after the full name of the university has been used in first reference.