Due to its history, the university is traditionally considered among Poland's most reputable institutions of higher learning, this standing equally being reflected in national rankings.

It traces its origins to 1611, when under the Royal Charter granted by King Sigismund III Vasa, the Jesuit College became the first university in Poznań.

[6][7] The inauguration ceremony of the newly founded institution took place on 7 May 1919 that is 308 years after it was formally established by the Polish king and on 400th anniversary of the foundation of the Lubrański Academy which is considered its predecessor.

The university is organized into six principal academic units—five research schools consisting of twenty faculties and the doctoral school—with campuses throughout the historic Old Town and Morasko.

The inauguration ceremony of the newly founded took place on 7 May 1919, that is 308 years after it was formally established by the Polish king and the 400th anniversary of the foundation of the Lubrański Academy which is considered its spiritual predecessor.

The university's central administrative building is Collegium Minus, on the west side of Adam Mickiewicz Square at the western end of the street Święty Marcin.

(This is one of a group of buildings, including the Imperial Palace, built in the first decade of the 20th century while Poznań was still under German rule; it originally housed a Royal Academy.)

Other buildings in the city centre include former communist party headquarters on Święty Marcin, Collegium Novum (used mainly for language teaching) on Al. Niepodległości, and the university library on ul.

Its graduates include authors (Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna, Ryszard Krynicki, Stanisław Barańczak), journalists (Adam Michnik, Max Kolonko), entrepreneurs (Jan Kulczyk, Grażyna Kulczyk); composer Jan A. P. Kaczmarek, the recipient of the Academy Award for Best Original Score (2004); theatre practitioner Lech Raczak, film director Filip Bajon and literary critic and a music aficionado, Jerzy Waldorff.

One of the most notable resistance fighters of the Home Army during Second World War, Jan Nowak-Jeziorański majored in economics in 1936, he worked as an assistant professor at the university.

[29] Additionally, Krzysztof Skubiszewski, Minister of Foreign Affairs (1989–1993), was the Judge sitting ad hoc on the Court (1993–2004), also Paweł Wiliński, Professor of Jurisprudence, chair in Criminal Procedure, served as the Judge sitting ad hoc on the European Court of Human Rights for two terms (2010–2012, 2015–2016).

Three of the school's graduates, including Alfons Klafkowski (1985–1989), Mieczysław Tyczka (1989–1993) and Julia Przyłębska (since 2016), have served as the Presidents of the Constitutional Tribunal of the Republic of Poland.

The Polish Cipher Bureau sought to break it due to the threat that Poland faced from Germany, but its early attempts did not succeed.

On 1 September 1932, 27-year-old Polish mathematician Marian Rejewski and two fellow Poznań University mathematics graduates, Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Różycki, joined the Bureau full-time and moved to Warsaw.

[32][33] Recipients of honorary doctorates from the university include Marshal Józef Piłsudski, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Marie Curie, Ignacy Paderewski, Roman Dmowski, Witold Hensel, Ernst Håkon Jahr, Al Gore, John Maxwell Coetzee, Krzysztof Matyjaszewski,[34] Robert Maxwell[35][36][37] and Orhan Pamuk, the recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature.