Located in the city's Arlington district, the school was founded in 1934 as a two-year college and was known as Jacksonville Junior College until September 5, 1956, when it shifted focus to building four-year university degree programs and later graduated its first four-year degree candidates as Jacksonville University in June 1959.

As a Division I institution, it fields 18 varsity athletics teams, known as the JU Dolphins, as well as intramural sports and clubs.

Among the top majors declared by JU students are aviation management, biology, nursing, business, and marine science.

Since a permanent site had not yet been acquired, classes were held on the third floor auditorium of the First Baptist Church Educational Building in downtown Jacksonville.

It relocated three times over the next fifteen years, including a period in the Florida Theatre building, but the influx of GI bill students following the end of World War II made it necessary for the school to find a permanent location.

The 1960s saw the university grow substantially as enrollment increased, dormitories were built, two new colleges were established and the Swisher Gymnasium was constructed.

The first student dormitories (Williams, McGehee, Brest, Merrill and Grether Halls) opened for the fall semester of 1965 on the south part of campus for a combined total of $2.4 million.

[11] In 1970 the Jacksonville University Dolphins men's basketball team, under star center Artis Gilmore, went to the NCAA Division I Championship.

In the 1990s Jacksonville University reconfigured itself as primarily a liberal arts college and embarked on a substantial fundraising campaign, which provided for the construction of new buildings and a revision of the campus master plan.

It is also an approved Yellow Ribbon School and is home to the Jacksonville University Veterans and Military Resource Center (VMRC).

[16] In 2018 they won the national competition and competed as finalists in the global CFA Institute Research Challenge in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The program is the third largest in the nation, behind Spartan School in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach.

[24] In November 2022, the university announced that it had partnered with the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine to open a branch of the medical school at the Arlington Campus by 2026.

He has also coached 10 All-America honorees, 50 all-conference selections and helped 44 players get drafted by Major League Baseball organizations.

[citation needed] In 1970, Jacksonville University became the second smallest school (behind St. Bonaventure) to make it to the NCAA Final Four and the national championship game.

After defeating the St. Bonaventure team in the tournament semi-finals, the Dolphins lost to the UCLA Bruins in the national championship.

The JU rowing program has had over 50 years of success around the world and has competed in locations such as the Nile River and England's Henley Royal Regatta.

Today, the Carl S. Swisher Library holds more than 350,000 volumes of books, periodicals, music scores, and other items, as well as a substantial collection of digital resources.

[36] In partnership with the university's College of Law and Center for Gender + Sexuality, in March 2023 the Swisher Library became home to the American Bar Association's 19th Amendment exhibit.