On February 14, 1936, John G. Mitchell called a meeting of Portland-area ministers and Christian businessmen to discuss the idea of creating a Bible school in the Pacific Northwest.

[7] In 2016, Multnomah University was granted an exception to Title IX that allowed it to legally discriminate against LGBT students.

[11] In opposition to Multnomah's enrollment decline, Jessup University in the fall of 2021 had 1,685 students and showed growth for the previous 10 years.

[10] With its closure on May 1, 2024,[12] students enrolled at that time were offered the option to participate in one of several teach-out programs through other universities.

[12] The original campus was located adjacent to the site of the present Lloyd Center shopping mall in Northeast Portland.

MU's Summit program allowed students to earn a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Bible and Theology and a Master of Divinity (M.Div.)

The university also offered two TESOL certificate options for people wanting to teach English to speakers of other languages.

), in particular, offered several specialized tracks, including Cross-Cultural Engagement, Contextual Leadership, Global Evangelism, and Youth Ministry.

The university was a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) from the 2015–16 academic year until its closing.

Men's sports included basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, and track and field; women's sports included basketball, cross country, lacrosse, soccer, track and field, and volleyball.