The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo) is a Canadian public research university. The university operates the largest post-secondary co-operative education program in the world, with over 20.000 undergraduate students enrolled in the program. It is a member of U15, a group of research-intensive universities in Canada. The university is ranked among the 200 best universities in the world according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities, 166th in the world by QS World University Rankings and in the best 250 by Times Higher Education World University Rankings. UWaterloo places a lot of students in silicon valley: in 2016 its alumni were the second-most frequently hired in small and medium-sized companies in Silicon Valley, along with graduates from MIT and Carnegie Mellon University.