The university adopts the name of Abbot Oliba, Count of Berga and Ripoll, bishop of Vic, and founder of Montserrat because "aimed at making its spirit who established a thousand years the foundations of emerging Catalonia based on Roman and Christian culture".

[2] Abbot Oliba is considered a key figure in the repopulation of Catalonia based on Roman and Christian culture, and political pacifism and his assemblies of Peace and Truce of God laid the groundwork for one of the first parliaments in Europe.

In 1995 it became known as the Center for Higher Education Abat Oliba and offered degrees in Law, Business Administration and Management, and Economy.

In 1992 he acquired the complex built by the modernist architect Bernardí Martorell at the behest of the benefactor Francesca Balart, to convert it into its current headquarters, which opened in 1995.

That same year, coinciding with the refurbishment by the architect Miquel Àngel Armengou, it was renamed the Abat Oliba Higher Education Centre, incorporating university studies in Law, Business Administration and Management and the first cycle of Economics.

The university's rectors since then have been: Juan Corona Ramón (2003–2004) José María Alsina Roca (2004–2009); Carlos Pérez del Valle (2009–2017), Eva Perea (2017-2018), Rafael Rodriguez-Ponga y Salamanca (2019-2024) and Arcadi Gual Sala (since 2024).

They offer undergraduate, master's and postgraduate degrees in the areas of Communication, Law and Political Science, Education, Business and Economics, Humanities and Psychology.

UAO CEU has six research groups: MULTICULTCOM (Communication and Conflict in a Multicultural Society), TRIVIUM (Family, Education and Inclusive Schooling), EAEDIUM (Applied Economics, Economics of Education and Market Research), EJES (Employability, Youth and Social Exclusion), GREFE (Family Business and Entrepreneurship) and PROSOPON (Person and Personal Life).

The UAO CEU was the first university to join the ‘Universitats amb cor’ programme[11] of Caritas Internationalis in Barcelona.

In 1900, part of the plot was segregated so that the architect Antoni Gaudí could build a residence for the industrialist Jaume Figueres, known as Torre Bellesguard.

On the rest of the land, in 1925, the Oblates of the Most Holy Redeemer promoted a religious community for carrying out social work, built by the architect Bernardí Martorell thanks to the generosity of Francesca Balart.