It has three faculties, 18 academic departments, and c.9,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students from over 100 countries. The campus is just west of Egham, Surrey, within the Greater London Urban Area, although outside the M25 motorway and c.19 miles (31 km) from the geographic centre of London.

The Egham campus was founded in 1879 by the Victorian entrepreneur and philanthropist Thomas Holloway. Royal Holloway College was officially opened in 1886 by Queen Victoria as an all-women college. It became a member of the University of London in 1900. In 1945, the college admitted male postgraduate students, and in 1965, male undergraduates. In 1985, Royal Holloway College merged with Bedford College (another formerly all-women's college in London which was founded in 1849 and, like Royal Holloway College, joined the University of London in 1900 and became fully co-educational in 1965). The merged college was named Royal Holloway and Bedford New College (RHBNC), this remaining the official registered name of the college by Act of Parliament. The campus is dominated by the  Founder's Building, a Grade I listed red-brick building modelled on the Château de Chambord in the Loire Valley, France.

RHC is ranked 12th in the UK, 36th in Europe, and 102nd in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2013-14. This ranks Royal Holloway in the top 1% of all higher education institutions worldwide. It is particularly strong in arts and humanities. Admission into courses in English, Creative Writing, Psychology and Music are very competitive with a 9:1 applicants to place ratio.RHC's degree courses in information security, Physics, International Relations, Earth Sciences and Media Arts are also particularly strong, frequently ranking in the top 10 of national subject rankings.There are strong links and exchange programmes with leading institutions in the United States, Canada and Hong Kong, notably Yale University, the University of Toronto and the University of Hong Kong.