A public university is a university that is predominantly funded by public means through a national or subnational government, as opposed to private universities. A national university may or may not be considered a public university, depending on regions. In some regions of the world prominent public institutions are highly influential centers of research; many of these universities are ranked among the best in the world by THES - QS World University Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities, including the University of California, Berkeley, McGill University, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Imperial College London.

In Argentina the National Universities, also called "Public or State-run Universities", is the name used to refer to all those institutions whose creation arose from the enactment of a National Congress Act, except for those whose creation preceded that of the state itself (as is the case of the National University of Córdoba and the University of Buenos Aires). They lie as Public Law legal entities and their regular operation funding comes from the national state, pursuant to what is set out on the annual national budget act.

Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American entrepreneur, abolitionist and philanthropist of 19th-century Baltimore, Maryland.

His bequests founded numerous institutions bearing his name, including Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

A biography entitled Johns Hopkins: A Silhouette written by his cousin, Helen Hopkins Thom, was published in 1929 by the Johns Hopkins University Press.

Johns Hopkins was born on May 19, 1795, to Samuel Hopkins (1759–1814) of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and Hannah Janney (1774–1864), of Loudoun County, Virginia. Home was Whitehall, a 500-acre (two km²) tobacco plantation in Anne Arundel County. His first name derives from a maternal great-grandmother, Margaret Johns, who passed it on to her son.

The Hopkins family were members of the Society of Friends (Quakers). In 1807 they emancipated their slaves in accordance with their local Society decree, which called for freeing the able-bodied and caring for the others, who would remain at the plantation and provide labor as they could. The second eldest of eleven children, 12 year-old Johns was required to work on the farm, interrupting his formal education. From 1806 to 1809, he likely attended The Free School of Anne Arundel County, which was located in today's Davidsonville, Maryland.