Although founded as a private institution, the VU has received government funding on a parity basis with public universities since 1970.

The university is located on a compact urban campus in the southern Buitenveldert neighbourhood of Amsterdam and adjacent to the modern Zuidas business district.

That year, the university had 2,263 faculty members and researchers, and 1,410 administrative, clerical and technical employees, based on FTE units.

Personally chosen by Abraham Kuyper, the Reformed-Protestant leader and founder of the university, it depicts a virgin living in freedom in a garden while pointing towards God, referring to the Protestant Reformation in the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th century.

[9] The VU was founded in 1880 by a group of Calvinists led by Abraham Kuyper as the first Protestant university in the Netherlands.

Teaching at the Vrije Universiteit started in 1880 in a few rooms rented at the Scottish Missionary Church (now the Kleine Komedie theatre), along the Amstel river in Amsterdam's city centre.

In 1884, the Scottish Missionary Church became too small for the growing number of students and the university bought its first building, located at Keizersgracht 162.

Funding for the university was provided through the VU Association, an organization founded by Abraham Kuyper which was firmly rooted within the Calvinist community in the Netherlands.

[10] From 1968 onwards, the university relocated from Amsterdam's city centre to a new, functional campus in the southern Buitenveldert neighbourhood.

By the end of the 1970s, the small, elitist Christian institution had all but disappeared and had become a broad, research-oriented university, open to students of diverse backgrounds.

The university has embarked on a reform agenda, including a large-scale renewal of campus facilities, austerity programmes and staff reorganizations,[12] which in turn were met with opposition and legal action from trade unions as well as a newly formed grassroots movement of staff and students.

[13] The university's main campus and medical centre are situated in the Buitenveldert neighbourhood, part of the southern district of Amsterdam.

Initially a fairly isolated location surrounded mostly by fields, the campus is now adjacent to the modern Zuidas business district housing some of the largest banks, accounting and law firms in the Netherlands.

[14] The Main Building is home to the faculties of Arts, Social Science, Philosophy, Economics and Business, and Theology.

Also adjacent to the campus square is the modern building of the Institute for Health and Welness, which has been nicknamed the Red Potato after its distinct shape and color.

Uilenstede, built mainly between 1966 and 1970, is home to several large student housing complexes and apartment buildings and the VU Sports Centre.

A new apartment complex for visiting staff and international PhD students on the eastern side of the campus was opened in 2012.

[17] A large renovation of the public space, made possible with a grant from the Schiphol Foundation, started in September 2013 and includes the construction of three new squares at the campus.

The other main institution within this foundation is the VU University Medical Center, which has a separate management structure.

[23] As with all publicly funded universities in the Netherlands, bachelor's and master's students pay tuition fees determined by law.

Rather than applying to the university for admission, prospective students must find a (full) professor who has a position for a PhD candidate, called a 'promovendus', and contact him or her directly.

In the same fashion, the VU makes it in the top 100 universities worldwide in the following subject areas: Business and Economics (91st), Computer Science (96th), Law (91st), and Psychology (49th).

On the other hand, it ranked in the top 100 universities worldwide in Pharmacy and Pharmacology (80th), Medicine (81st), Economics and Business (86th), Communication Sciences (51-100), Geography (51-100), Anatomy (51-100), and other.

Additionally, other fields make it to the top 100 worldwide according to the Shanghai Ranking, i.e., Political Science (76-100), Medicine (76-100), Sociology (76-100), Business Administration (76-100).

AIMMS focusses on three programs: molecular mechanisms of biological processes, design and characterization of molecules and medicines, and Biomarkers and diagnostics.

The Ad Valvas magazine focuses primarily on background stories, interviews and op-ed articles, while daily campus news is mostly provided through the newspaper's website.