Located at a distance of 45 km (28 mi) from Jammu Airport and 14 km (8.7 mi) short of the town of Katra, the university is situated on a plateau surrounded by mountains on three sides in the foothills of the Trikuta Range where the shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi is located.

In 1998, the people of Jammu region supported the establishment of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University.

[9][10][11] The Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board owned and funded the construction of the university.

The site, spread over an area of 470 acres, was procured from Kakryal village, a flat hill across Jhajjar stream from National Highway 1A (now NH44).This University is owned by Government.

[13] The university receives funding from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, an autonomous board set up in August 1986 under the provisions of The Jammu and Kashmir Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Act, 1986 of J&K State Legislature.

The Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir is the Chancellor of the university and the Chairman of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board.

The university has adopted an IIT/UGC pattern of study with choice-based credit system and continuous evaluation based on Grade Point Average (GPA) on a 10-point scale.

Many students are admitted into the BTech/BArch programme every year from among the high rankers of JEE (Main) through the Central Seat Allocation Board (MHRD), admission from CUET is also considered.

Candidates admitted to the M.B.A. programme pass through a three tier selection process based on CAT/MAT Score, group discussions and interviews conducted by panel of academics from IITs & corporate professionals.

Extensive usage of varied contemporary pedagogy, such as multi-media teaching aids like digital projectors, OHP, net-enabled labs, video conferencing, cut-section models, and simulation software, are used to enrich the teaching–learning process.

[clarification needed] Field visits are conducted regularly to familiarise students with real world applications of the knowledge learnt.

Visiting lectures by a variety of faculty members and professionals are arranged on a regular basis to broaden the scope of learning.

The top ten per cent of students in each class are awarded scholarships, with tuition fee waivers ranging from 100% to 50% (subject to fulfilment of merit restrictions).

UGC has funded the following research centres established by the university to pursue active research resulting in patents, products and publications: The university has a residential system which can accommodate all the students on campus in six hostels (Vidhyanchal, Nilgiri, Trikuta, Kailash, Old & New Basohli for Boys, and Old & New Shivalik and Vaishnavi for Girls).