Thomas Harper Adams, a wealthy Shropshire gentleman farmer, died in 1892, bequeathing the estate which was the original foundation.

[5] During the First World War, Harper Adams remained open, and in 1915 the first women were admitted into the college on wartime farm courses.

Harper Adams was the first institute to do so, and in 1916 women were admitted as full-time students onto a wide variety of courses.

[6] In 2015, 10 additional names were added to the university's memorial board, after previously unrecorded alumni were also discovered to have been killed in action.

The National Institute of Poultry Husbandry opened in 1926, giving Harper a high profile in areas of teaching and research.

Wynn Jones became principal in 1996, and later that year the Privy Council granted the university degree awarding powers.

Harper Adams gained the power to award research degrees in 2006 and shortly after, a new Biomass Hall was opened.

An anaerobic digester opened in 2011, which is expected to offset three times the carbon emissions of the university annually.

[12] Ken Sloan was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Harper Adams University in 2021, its eighth institutional leader.

This ended the institution's long history of being a college and consequently, Harper Adams became Shropshire's first university.

[citation needed] Harper Adams operates a 635 hectare (1569 acres) commercial farm on campus.

[18] Areas of research include; management of soil and water, crop disease resistance, agricultural technology, livestock carbon footprint reduction, genetic approaches to improving food quality, bioenergy and renewable sources, agricultural landscape biodiversity, pedagogy and animal welfare.

[29] Harper Adams has a variety of sports clubs, including rugby, shooting, football, hockey, fencing, netball, polo, tug of war, basketball, motorsport, off-roading, rowing, running, field sports, equestrian and mountain biking.

[34] The Motorsport Team has its own VW Golf GTi rally car and Ford Fiesta R2 National.