Some of the universities founded before the Second World War (for example, the University of Reading) were concentrated on a single site, as opposed to being spread throughout a town, but the term is most commonly associated with the boom in new universities in the United Kingdom after the Second World War which led to the creation of many new institutions. The first of these new institutions was Keele University which was established in 1949. These newer institutions are also known as plate glass universities (originally a term of contempt).

The founding of these new institutions initiated a wave of far reaching expansion in Higher Education within the UK and helped open access to Higher Education to students who found access to the more traditional universities difficult or closed. The traditional universities tended to attract students from the exclusive private education sector in the UK and from privileged backgrounds whereas Campus Universities attracted students from all classes, backgrounds and schools (especially the state funded Grammar and then later Comprehensive schools).

These institutions also promoted "new" courses of study and so helped initiate not just a great expansion in numbers of students but in the range of subjects studied.

Therefore many students in the Campus Universities, particularly in the post war period 1950 to 1970 were the first member of their family ever to go to University and studying new and "exciting" topics, which lent a radical edge to the experience of Higher Education.

Originally looked down on by the older universities many Campus Universities within the UK are now large elite institutions, educationally on a par with their older rivals.

Campus Universities are contrasted to Collegiate universities, based on a number of Colleges (such as Oxford, Durham or Cambridge Universities) or a university consisting of a number of sites, or even individual buildings, spread throughout a town (such as Edinburgh University). Confusingly, multi-site universities often call each separate site "a campus" and many original Campus Universities now have expanded to more than one site (or campus), for example the University of Nottingham.

The classic Campus University is often found on the edge of cities, such as the University of Essex near Colchester, Warwick University near Coventry, the University of East Anglia near Norwich, or Keele University near Newcastle-under-Lyme.