Fifteen universities built in different ages in Hefei city were selected as research objects, which covered three typical areas, i.e. the district in the second ring road, university town and vocational education district. ArcGIS was used to interpret the satellite remote sensing images of the built-up area in 2018, and to further analyze the characteristics of urban forest canopy coverage. The results showed that the actual canopy of 15 universities covered 283.25 hm², and the overall canopy coverage was 29.67%. The actual canopy coverage varied from 11.90% to 43.89%, and the potential canopy coverage varied from 1.73% to 30.00%. The canopy coverage in more than two-thirds of the universities was at high or very high level. The actual canopy coverage in the universities constructed in early stage was higher than that of the later’s. The canopy coverage in the second ring district (38.69 %) was the highest, while the potential canopy coverage was just the opposite, with the highest potential canopy coverage in the vocational education district (19.02%). Further analysis found that the overall urban forest canopy coverage in Hefei universities could be increased to 40.14% in the future, and the difference in canopy coverage in different ages was mainly influenced by the time span and the greening construction ideas.