This article is a result of the doctoral research "Collective Actions in Defense of Public Education: Colombia-Mexico (1987-2007)".It specifically shows the configuration of the concept of university autonomy from a public perspective, based upon two college experiences, the case of the unam in Mexico and the National University of Colombia.This responds to the concern about the polysemy of the concept, as well as the tensions and confusions that arise when referring to it and the need to redesign it in regards to the current university reality.For this reason, the study addresses three conceptions that, as contradictions, explain the configuration of the sense of university autonomy in relation to the Church, the State and the market.