The campus of the university spans a rural tract of 650 acres (260 ha), mostly around metropolitan Madrid.

Founded in 1968, its main campus, Cantoblanco, is located near the cities of Alcobendas, San Sebastián de los Reyes and Tres Cantos.

This decree was sponsored by the then-Minister of Science and Education, José Luis Villar Palasí, in order to restructure the Spanish university system.

The name Universidad Autónoma de Madrid first appeared in an executive order by the Ministry which was published on 13 August 1968.

[6] On 8 June 2018 the Autonomous University of Madrid celebrated its 50th anniversary with a series of commemorative events.

The campus was designed as a university town that was to be self-sufficient, but also would be away from Madrid in order to keep student activity against the Francoist dictatorship away from the capital.

Initially, the campus held the faculties of philosophy and liberal arts, law, economics, business management, and science, as well as the rectorate, several other service buildings and sports facilities.

The university's other facilities, the faculty of medicine and the teacher training Santa Maria school are in downtown Madrid.

Characteristic of each building is a large number of stairs in its corridors, initially designed to prevent students from running in case of police raids.

Currently, this fact has been considered by many university officials as a setback in the integration of handicapped students.

The newest facilities were built in a contemporary style, being more accessible and allowing more free movement to students.

The UAM is divided into eight faculties and superior schools that support and coordinate most of the university's academic and administrative activity.

There are the Diplomatura and Ingenierías Técnicas (technical engineering), which are three-year studies equivalent to an associate degree.

In other case, they must have at least the first two or three years of a licenciatura and combined degree, which are very popular among Spanish students.

[8] In addition, the alliance of the four leading Spanish public Universities, two in Madrid (Autónoma University of Madrid and Universidad Carlos III) and two in Barcelona (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Universitat Pompeu Fabra) allows close collaboration between projects and researchers.

[17] It was the Spanish university with the most researchers among the most cited according to the Thomson Reuters ranking citation in 2011.

The Autonomous University of Madrid has an active student body, having organised one of Spain's most important events against the dictatorship in 1976 called the Iberian Peoples Festival.

In recent years, UAM students have organised massively to protest against terrorism, after the assassination of Francisco Tomas y Valiente by ETA in 1995, against the Organic Law of Universities in 2001, to clean Spain's northern coast after the Prestige oil spill in 2002, against the War in Iraq in 2003, to assist to the II European Social Forum also in 2003, and in solidarity with the victims of the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings.

According to university regulations, festival profits have to be destined to charities or to the organisation of cultural events.