The predecessor of the Universiteit van Amsterdam, the Athenaeum Illustre was founded in Amsterdam in 1632 to educate students in Trade and Philosophy. Lessons were generally given at the professors' homes as the establishment was not yet a proper university.

The Athenaeum remained a small institution until the nineteenth century, with no more than 250 students and eight teachers. The situation changed in 1877 when the Athenaeum Illustre became the Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) and was permitted to confer the highest educational degrees.

Years of rapid growth lay ahead. There were 900 students at the Universiteit van Amsterdam by 1900. This figure had risen to  2,500 by 1935, and to 7,500 by 1960. More fields of study and research were introduced, and new university departments were established.

Nowadays over 22,000 students attend the Universiteit van Amsterdam. From Trade and Philosophy the original Athenaeum Illustre has expanded into a comprehensive university featuring almost sixty disciplinary fields — with the exception of the field of technology.

The Universiteit van Amsterdam is one of the major comprehensive universities in Europe with 22,000 students and a budget of 487 million euros. It has a strong internationalization programme and offers a number of Dutch and English language courses. There are seven faculties covering humanities, social and behavioural sciences, law, economics and business, medicine and dentistry, and science.

The UvA thus offers a comprehensive range of academic study programmes. UvA staff publish around 7,500 scholarly articles each year. The university's fundamental academic research is top of the international league in many respects. The applied research programmes are often of an interdisciplinary nature and often focus on social issues.

The UvA aims to offer an inspiring, broadly oriented international academic environment where both staff members and students can develop their capacities to optimum effect. The UvA is characterised by a critical, creative and international atmosphere, open-minded and strongly engaged with society. Because the UvA is located in both historic and modern buildings spread throughout the city, the university forms an integral part of the city of Amsterdam.

• Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, University of Amsterdam
• Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Amsterdam
• Korteweg-de Vries Institute for Mathematics, University of Amsterdam
• University of Amsterdam, Department of Mathematics
• Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, University of Amsterdam
• Van't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Amsterdam

• University of Amsterdam