It is a part of the University System of Georgia and has satellite medical campuses in Savannah, Albany, Rome, and Athens.

[15] Augusta State University traces its roots to 1783, when the Academy of Richmond County was founded as a high school.

The campus was formerly well known for the Arsenal Oak, a tree that contained wood believed to be 250–400 years old, until it was cut down in June 2004 because of disease.

[19] A dedication ceremony of the replanting of the new Arsenal Oak took place on Friday, April 29, 2016, on the front lawn of the Benét House.

[21] Then-Augusta State University opened a second campus in 1991 for athletics, complete with a 3,800-seat arena—Christenberry Fieldhouse, named in 2003—and softball and baseball fields.

[18] The J. Fleming Norvell Golf House was added in 2007 with an adjacent driving range, putting green, and chipping area.

Augusta University has three satellite campuses for medical student clinical study, in Albany, Rome, and Savannah.

[29] To accommodate its new Health Sciences Campus, in 2011 the University of Georgia acquired the 58-acre former U.S. Navy Supply Corps School which had extensive landscaped green spaces, more than 400 trees, and several historic buildings located on the hospital and medical office corridor of Prince Avenue near downtown Athens.

After renovations and additions, in July 2012, the UGA-MCG Medical Partnership moved to the new University of Georgia Health Sciences Campus.

The partnership will strengthen the relationship between AU and ARCYBER by assisting soldiers transferring their training to the private sector as well as by sharing resources.

After completing 30 semester hours of college level coursework and attaining a minimum GPA of 2.3, students can then elect to transfer into a bachelor's program at AU.

The university is a member of the Division II level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), primarily competing in the Peach Belt Conference (PBC) since the 1991–92 academic year; except in women's and men's golf, which those sports compete in the NCAA Division I level as an affiliate member of the Southland Conference.