It is accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education and located in the outskirts of Birzeit, West Bank, near Ramallah.

[5] On 21 November 1984, a student at the university was shot and killed by the Israeli military, with five others being injured, while taking part in a demonstration in support of Palestinian Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat.

[7] In January 1987, history professor Saleh Abd al-Jawad was sentenced to 39 days imprisonment by an Israeli military court after participating in a sit-down strike at the university in December 1986.

[16] In December 2021, a series of violent incidents between students of rival Palestinian factions occurred in the campus.

[18] The same day, hundreds of students took part in a Hamas parade on campus to mark the movement's founding anniversary.

[20] The old Birzeit campus was centered around the historic Nasir family home constructed at the end of the Ottoman Empire and adjacent buildings that originally housed the elementary school founded in 1924, before later becoming the community college and eventually the university.

The university's large building complexes and stone facades are designed in a contemporary architectural style, forming a contrast against the surrounding landscape of olive groves and small villages nestled in the valleys.

Birzeit University is governed by an autonomous board of trustees composed of educators and professionals from the Palestinian community.

[21] The Birzeit University Museum is a significant location for exhibitions, workshops, and talks in the Palestinian cultural landscape.

Moreover, as more attention was given to artistic practices, the university felt the need to devote a specific and larger space for art collections and creativity.

Indeed, being part of an academic institution, the museum became important as it became a model of propagation and creation of cultural and artistic practices.

It is an informal group from the university dedicated to assisting students and staff who faced harassment from Israeli military authorities.

The aim of the committee was to document violations, contact lawyers, and raise awareness while providing a safe support for all students.

One example is the plantations of trees on the campus initiated by students, commemorating the 1976 fatal shooting of six Palestinian citizens of Israel by the government for demonstrating against the seizure of land in the Galilee region.