The university also has research units in the Finnish cities of Mikkeli and Kouvola, as well as a regional office in Brussels, Belgium.

In the 1950s, the Finnish government noticed that the country lacked accessible higher education, with most of the universities in Finland at that time being located in Helsinki and a few other cities that were largely out of reach for the average Finn.

This caused a reform of the higher education system in Finland that would eventually lead to the creation of several universities in the following decades.

LTKK would start its operations in the city center of Lappeenranta in 1969 with a class of 39 students.

LUT University started permanent operations in Lahti in 1996 in the form of a small research unit.

After the acquisition of LAMK and the creation of LAB University of Applied Sciences, LUT expanded its reach and opened a second campus.

[12] Each guild of LUT in Lappeenranta has their own distinctly colored overalls which distinguish them in student events.

There is a restaurant and cafe inside the LAB University of Applied Sciences connected to LUT through a skybridge, and there is also a bar that is near student housing on campus.

The campus is located inside a renovated factory, of which a portion belongs to the universities, but is also shared among various companies and institutes.

[14] About half of LUT University's international bachelor's programs in English are located on the Lahti campus.

The campus also has a large amount of Finnish master's programs relating to commercial science and engineering.

[15] LAB University of Applied Sciences also has their own student guilds on campus for their respective fields.

[18] The Brussels regional office exists to strengthen the university's cooperation with its European partners.

[3] The university is ranked second in Finland in the fields of Physical Sciences and Business[20][21] and fifth in Engineering.

[25] In the year 2024, LUT University received 6,601 domestic applicants, and accepted 591 new students.

This puts LUT University's overall domestic acceptance rate for the year 2024 at 11%.

The field of business itself accounts for roughly 50% (3,069) of the overall applications to the university despite only having 140 starting spots.

[27] At the beginning of 2015, the university shifted to an organization model which does not have traditional faculties and departments.

Instead, the university consists of three distinct schools which focus on the following research topics: The following fields can be studied at LUT University to a bachelor's, master's, licentiate and doctoral level depending on program: The Viipuri Prize, established by the Society for Viipuri School of Economics, is awarded for particularly noteworthy achievements in their respective fields.

[28] The Prize is given out every few years to a scholar who is prominent in their of study on a global scale, and whose work significantly impacts the research agenda at LUT Business School.