Ohio University is a major U.S. public research university located primarily on a 1,850-acre (7.5 km 2) campus in Athens, Ohio, United States. As one of America's oldest universities, Ohio University was chartered on February 18, 1804, and opened for students in 1809. As of 2014, the Athens campus had approximately 23,300 individual students; the other five campuses had approximately 10,000 combined; and eLearning had approximately 5900 individual students.