state-supported system of higher education established in 1948 with some 64 campuses located throughout the state of New York. SUNY was officially organized more than 150 years after the state legislature, in its first session (1784) after the American Revolution, proposed a state university modeled on the French system—i.e., a multi-institutional system with central administrative control. A Board of Regents was named to administer King's College (later renamed Columbia University), then the state's only college, and to start new colleges, but they were unable to get the new system started. In 1787 control of Columbia was given over to its own board of trustees.

Until after World War II, the regents supported higher education by dispensing state scholarship funds and working closely with private colleges to establish educational policy. After the war it became apparent that existing universities did not have enough places to accommodate veterans and minority groups, who began to pressure the state to establish a free state-university system. In 1948 the state legislature approved a system that incorporated some existing schools and called for the construction of new colleges in underserved areas. A board of trustees was established to administer the system, replacing the regents in this role.

The system now includes university centres at Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo (the main centre for graduate work), and Stony Brook; 13 university colleges; 2 health sciences centres; 4 specialized colleges; 5 statutory colleges on the campuses of private universities; 6 colleges of technology; and 30 community colleges. The university colleges, or colleges of arts and sciences, include Empire State College in Saratoga Springs and SUNY branch campuses at Brockport, Buffalo, Cortland, Fredonia, Geneseo, New Paltz, Old Westbury, Oneonta, Oswego, Plattsburgh, Potsdam, and Purchase. The medical, or health science, centres are at Brooklyn and Syracuse. Total enrollment in the state university system is approximately 400,000 students.