Established at Lahore in the year 1882, Panjab University was one of the first four Universities to be established in India. It was also the first University to be established through public funding in the form of grants from people belonging to the region. Following the turmoil of partition and a series of displacements, Panjab University found its new home in Chandigarh in the year 1958-59. Here it served as one of the two major foci of the city's development and continued the established tradition of pursuing teaching and research in science and technology, humanities, social sciences, performing arts and sports. Today it features among the premier Institutions of Higher Education in the country and has not only maintained established traditions and standards but has rather emerged as an Institution taking major strides towards innovative teaching, research and community outreach.

With the Hon'ble Vice President of India, Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar as the Chancellor and Professor Renu Vig as its Vice Chancellor, Panjab University has a legacy to be proud of. It has produced contributed illustrious alumni in all walks of life. The University has been the alma mater of former President of India, Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, former Prime Ministers Shri I K Gujral and Dr Manmohan Singh and a large number of Nobel laureates, scientists, sports-persons, renowned public figures, notable bureaucrats and theatre personalities who have contributed immensely to the cause of the nation building. Panjab University Campus at Chandigarh has seventy-three teaching and research departments/institutes/centres besides four independent Chairs for research. Furthermore, the University has 189 affiliated/constituent colleges, spread over Punjab and Chandigarh besides Regional Centres at Muktsar, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur and Kauni.

The University is an active partner in various prestigious International High Energy Research Programmes at Fermilab (USA), KEK (Japan) and CERN (Switzerland). It has MoUs with University of Nottingham (UK), University of Birmingham (UK), Nottingham Trent University (UK) and University of Western Sydney (Australia) and collaborations with National Science Technology and Development Agency, Thailand; University of Missouri, USA and Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal; International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad; International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA, Morocco; World Vegetable Research Centre, Taiwan and Baylor Medical centre, Dallas, U.S.A. The University also has collaborations with a number of national institutes like IARI, Delhi; GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar; HFRI, Shimla; IIT, Roorkee; PGIMER, Chandigarh; IMTECH, Chandigarh; CSIO, Chandigarh and many others.

In addition, the University has established Pre-Incubation Centres and Skill Development Centres under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan of the Government of India to give impetus to research and innovation. BioNEST-PU was launched by BIRAC with a vision that focused on fostering the Biotech Innovation Ecosystem and nurture young entrepreneurs in the northern region of the country. DST-funded Tech Enabling Centre was established at Panjab University with the aim to provide technological solutions for needs of society and industry. University DST-Centre for Policy Research has the mandate to prepare guidelines for strengthening Industry-Academia Collaborations under Public Private Partnership mode. Recently the University has been awarded the Northern Region Science and Technology Cluster in association with IIT Ropar by the office of the PSA, PMO. In recognition of its many distinctions the University was awarded an A++ grade with a score of 3.68 by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council in the year 2023.