It is a Unitary non-affiliating University whose main focus is on undergraduate and postgraduate studies and on research in the Humanities and the Social Sciences.

[7] It is named after the polymath B. R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution and one of the founding fathers of India.

AUD presently has three campuses - in Kashmere Gate, Karampura and, Lodi Road, where 40 undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes are currently on offer.

The Kashmere Gate campus is housed in the erstwhile Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University campus, along with Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women.

The historical campus originally built for Delhi College of Engineering also houses the 300-year-old Dara Shikoh library.