The University of Kiel (German Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, CAU) is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the Academia Holsatorum Chiloniensis by duke Christian Albrecht of Holstein-Gottorp in order to train priests and government officials. Especially during the 19th century a number of important scholars worked and taught in Kiel.

It was one of the first universities to obey the Gleichschaltung in 1933 and removed many of the professors and students from the school, as e.g. Ferdinand Tönnies or Felix Jacoby. The university buildings sustained much damage during the Second World War. The school was rebuilt at a different location with only a very few of the older buildings housing the medical school. There were approximately 23,000 students enrolled in 2007.