The Autonomous University of Madrid (Spanish: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; UAM), commonly known as la Autónoma, is a Spanish public university located in Madrid, Spain. The university was founded in 1968 by royal decree. UAM is widely respected as one of the most prestigious universities in Europe. According to the QS World University Rankings 2022, UAM is ranked as the top university in Spain and has consistently ranked as #1 in Spain in the El País University rankings, published annually. Among its notable alumni, which include every president that the Supreme Court of Spain and Constitutional Court of Spain has had, is the current King of Spain, Felipe VI, who studied the Licenciatura en Derecho (Law) and is the president of UAM’s alumni society.
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. UAM's Cantoblanco Campus holds most of the university's facilities. It is located 15 km (9.3 mi) north of Madrid and has an extension of over 2,200,000 m (24,000,000 sq ft). Of these, nearly 770,000 m (8,300,000 sq ft) are urbanised and about a third of them are garden areas. UAM offers 94 doctorate programs across the university. It also offers 88 master's degrees.
