The University of Lleida has its roots in the Estudi General de Lleida created in 1300 by a charter to the city of Lleida from the king of Aragon James II on the basis of the papal bull issued in Rome on the 1st of April 1297, by Pope Boniface VIII.

With the birth of the Estudio General, a university neighbourhood grew up in Lleida with students arriving from all over the Crown of Aragon and many other territories, which .as happens nowadays-, gave the city an atmosphere of special vitality. On the other hand, students and teachers formed a differentiated community with important privileges and immunities, with the parish church of Saint Martin as the emblematic place for solemn ceremonies, and the economic backing of the municipality and the Cathedral Chapter.

Despite the good times that the University of Lleida went through until the first half of the 16th century, the situation of university studies would become more complicated with the growing competition of the new Universities that were being created in other territories of the Crown. Despite that, the schools of the Estudio of Lleida managed to maintain their old prestige acquired through time, even after having lost the exclusivity and hegemony achieved with the privilege of the foundation.

Thus, from the second half of the 17th century a period of decadence began that would continue until the reign of Phillip V, in the 18th century. At this time, and after the War of the Spanish Succession, the Bourbon reformers decided to create a new model of university. In Catalonia, the location chosen was the small town of Cervera, some 70 kilometres east of Lleida. The new University of Cervera was situated there to thank the town of that name for its support for the cause of Phillip V, while Lleida and Barcelona opposed this from the start. The new unified University was created on the 11th of May 1717 and a Royal Cedule of the 9th of October ordered the closing of the old Estudi General of Lleida, after 417 years of prolonged existence, together with the other Catalan universities. This was accompanied by a heavy political repression that led to Catalonia losing its original institutions. Thus ended the first stage of the life of the Catalan University which had had uninterrupted academic activity over a long period of our history.

The creation of the Normal School of Lleida in 1841 during a period of growing liberalism and preoccupation with education constituted the first stone of the current-day University of Lleida. However, it was not until 1968 that the first true acceleration occurred for the effective reimplantation of university studies, which however depended on the Universities of the city of Barcelona.

On the 12th of December 1991, the Parliament of Catalonia passed the Act of Creation of the University of Lleida. The new institution agglutinated all the university studies of the city of Lleida. Dr. Víctor Siurana Zaragoza was given the post of President of the Management Commission of the University until the election of Dr. Jaume Porta Casanellas as rector in May 1993. The process of constitution of the University of Lleida was concluded, with the approval by the Constituent Senate of the Statutes of the University of Lleida, on the 27th of October 1994 and the election and later constitution of all the definitive organs of government and the statutory election of the first rector, this post being filled by Dr. Jaume Porta Casanellas. Since then, the UdL has been committed to innovation and the permanent improvement of the quality of the teaching, research and management in the service of society.

The Commemoration of the 700th Anniversary of the creation of the Studium Generale, with a extensive and abundant programme of academic and cultural acts between 1997 and 2000, has represented an outstanding landmark in the growing prestige of the University of Lleida. The presence of the highest authorities from the political, economic and social circles as well as relevant personalities. All this has helped to create an atmosphere of self-confidence and has projected the image of the University of Lleida onto the international stage. The doctors honoris causa of the University of Lleida include personalities of the stature of Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Roc Pifarré, Joan Oró, Peter Ulmer, Marc Richelle, Eliane Vogel-Polsky, John Elliot and Alícia de Larrocha.