The campus of the university spans a rural tract of , 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. UAM's Cantoblanco Campus holds most of the university's facilities. It is located north of Madrid and has an extension of over . Of these, nearly are urbanised and about a third of them are garden areas. UAM offers 94 doctorate programs across the university.
