The University started as a Polytechnic in 1999. It was established under PNDC Law 321(1992), which was amended in 2007 with an Act of Parliament (Act 745).

Though established in 1999, its academic programmes started in September 2003 at the former Meat Marketing Company building in Bukere, a suburb of Bolgatanga.  It became the first permanent site until 2007 when it relocated to its current main campus at Sumbrungu, on the Bolgatanga – Navrongo highway.

It was upgraded to a University in April, 2020 by the Technical Universities amendment Act 2020 (Act 1016).

It has since its inception grown in terms of infrastructure, staff numbers and qualification, academic programmes as well as student numbers. Currently, the University has two campuses: the Bukere and Sumbrungu Campuses. The Bukere Campus is where both tertiary and non-tertiary programmes are run including the Evening School or Part-time Programmes while the Sumbrungu or Main Campus houses the Administration of the University and all full-time academic programmes.

The University now runs over thirty-five (35) different tertiary programmes of MSc, BSc, BTech, HND and Dipolma curricula in five (5) Schools, i.e School of Business and Management Studies, School of Applied Science and Arts, School of Built Environment, School of Agriculture and School of Engineering. The Master of Science programmes are run by the School of Graduate Studies.

Ecological Agriculture is the niche area of the University. The University has industrial partnerships with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Savanah Agriculture Research Institute (SARI), and the Skills Development Fund (SDF) to improve agriculture in the savannah region of Ghana. and institutional collaborations with the University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the Apidon Academy of Science, Burkina Faso, the Universite Ouaga 1, the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, USA, the Ashesi University, among others.