The University of Alcalá (Universidad de Alcalá, abbreviated UAH) is a public research university located in Alcalá de Henares, a historic city in the Community of Madrid about 35 kilometres northeast of the Spanish capital. In its present form the institution was established in 1977, created as an independent university from faculties that previously belonged to the Complutense University of Madrid. It nonetheless traces its heritage to a much older institution: a university founded in the town in 1499 by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, which operated for more than three centuries before being relocated to Madrid in 1836.

The university is closely bound to the cultural identity of Alcalá de Henares, the birthplace of the writer Miguel de Cervantes. In 1998 UNESCO added the university and the historic centre of the city to its World Heritage list, recognising Alcalá as an early model of a planned university town. UAH is also widely known throughout the Spanish-speaking world for hosting the annual ceremony of the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious literary award for works written in Spanish, which is presented each April by the King of Spain.

Today the university enrols roughly 29,000 students and organises its teaching and research through around two dozen departments, with faculties spanning the humanities, experimental and health sciences, engineering, law, and the social sciences. Its facilities are divided between a historic campus in the centre of Alcalá de Henares and a modern science and technology campus on the city's edge, together with additional teaching sites in the neighbouring province of Guadalajara. It remains a popular destination for international students, particularly those pursuing Spanish-language and Hispanic studies.