The Division of the Vice-President Finance and Administration is responsible for planning and managing York University's physical, financial and human resources, for its business operations and administrative services, and for certain internal regulatory and audit functions.

As Canada's third largest university, York is home to 54,000 students and 7,000 staff and faculty members – including both full- and part-time employees. York's Keele campus, located in the north of Toronto and bordering York Region, is the largest post-secondary campus in Canada at 457 acres. York's Glendon campus, located in mid-town Toronto on Bayview Ave. at Lawrence Ave. East in a park-like, ravine setting on 85 acres, is the only place in southern Ontario where university-level courses are offered in both French and English.

York University's physical facilities on the Keele and Glendon campuses include 95 buildings that represent 8.2 million Gross Square Feet of teaching, research, student service, administrative and mechanical space. The total University plant also includes 34 surface parking lots, 3 multi-level parking garages, 35 roadways, 165 walkways, 6 woodlots, 1 wooded ravine, 7 sport fields, 3 baseball diamonds, 16 tennis courts, 1 stadium, 1 outdoor basketball court, 2 ponds and 1 barn.

Also located on the Keele campus are non-York facilities, including Canlan Ice Sports (with six ice surfaces) and Tennis Canada's Rexall Centre (housing a 5,000 centre-court stadium, 11 outdoor and 5 indoor courts). The campus is also home to the Toronto Track and Field Centre, with outdoor stadium and indoor field house, which is operated by the City of Toronto under a joint management structure with York. All three of these facilities are used at certain times for University programs. Additionally, Seneca@York, a campus of Seneca College of Applied Arts & Technology, is located at York's Keele campus as is the privately owned, Computer Methods Building.

York operates nine undergraduate residences (2,461 beds) and six apartment buildings (1,254 units) that house approximately 6.8% of York's undergraduate and graduate student population. Housing also offers temporary accommodation options for visiting guests and summer conference groups. In addition, there are more than 40 food outlets serving the community's diverse needs, from executive dining rooms to student pubs and from national franchises to independent operators providing home-style meals. There are also 150 snack and beverage vending machines throughout the University's buildings. York manages on-campus parking facilities housing 9,393 vehicle stalls (8,889 at Keele and 504 at Glendon) and coordinates more than 1,700 public transit vehicle trips to the Keele campus daily. Daily public transit vehicle trips to the Glendon campus number 209.

With a total annual budget in excess of $750 million, York University has a large economic impact on the Greater Toronto Area economy (estimated in excess of $3 billion in a 2003 study). Almost 60% of funding is from non-governmental sources. As reported in its financial statements, the University possesses assets estimated at $1.5 billion (as at April 30, 2011) and manages endowment funds with a market value of $331 million (as at April 30, 2011). York's endowment ranks 11th in size of assets compared to other Canadian universities (based on the Canadian Association of University Business Officers' endowment survey). York University also manages one of the largest pension funds in the Province of Ontario with assets in excess of $1.3 billion as at December 31, 2010. Academic program costs (including faculty, program delivery, research and student services) account for approximately 70% of annual expenditures, while administration (including facilities/property, utilities, capital, legal, marketing, etc) accounts for about 30% of annual expenditures.