The institution is named after Leopold Ružička a Croatian-Swiss scientist born in Vukovar and joint winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry who worked most of his life in Switzerland.

The institution used croatized version of scientist's name leading to translation of Leopold into Lavoslav.

The Decision on the Establishment of the Lavoslav Ružička Polytechnic in Vukovar was published in Narodne novine, the official gazette of the Republic of Croatia, on 27 August 2005.

[3] Minister of Science, Education and Sports, provided 620,000 Croatian kuna for reconstruction of the Jirkovsky Palace which serves as the polytechnic's headquarters.

[3] As of 2020 Polytechnic offers four different study programs all of which in full-time capacity:[4] College of Applied Sciences “Lavoslav Ružička” in Vukovar have an Erasmus+ physical therapy student exchange program with the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences from Kaunas.