The campus, built in the 1970s following the Leuven crisis, houses the Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry, Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences and of Public Health, the Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, the university's main academic hospital, as well as many other institutions of higher education and a vast sports complex.

It was however decided to move the medical school to the eastern suburbs of Brussels, including the construction of a new university hospital complex.

[3] The Alma metro station on the city's rapid transit network, located in the centre of the campus, was inaugurated in 1986.

The campus is centered around the Place de l'Alma, the main square built on different levels, whose buildings are now listed as protected monuments.

[4] This is how the Maison Médicale (the "Mémé") was built on the Place de l'Alma, a vast multi-functional building with student accommodation on the higher floors.

The eastern part of the campus is made up of a park with a botanical garden of medicinal plants, the Jardin Paul Moens.

The campus hosts many private and public research institutions, which can be independent, related to universities, companies, or part of UCLouvain.

On Place de l'Alma, the campus also hosts the headquarters of the American Overseas Memorial Day Association Foundation.