The university currently has six faculties (Applied Sciences, Arts & Culture, Islamic Studies & Arabic Language, Management & Commerce, Engineering and Technology).

SEUSL offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses that award degrees such as BA, BBA, BSc.

[2] It is the thirteenth largest university in Sri Lanka in student numbers.

[6] With the rising of militancy and civil strife due to Civil War in Northern province, the Muslims in Jaffna were forced to leave the peninsula as the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Tamil militant organisation Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) since the beginning of the 1990s.

[7] That action made the difficulties on Muslim staff and students who were working and studying in the University of Jaffna at that time period.

[8][9] As a solution, ad hoc arrangements were made for them mainly at the Eastern University in Vantharumulai in Batticaloa District.

[9] The problem was considered by then government, which had already planned to expand its university education in the country to less developed regions.

[10] The university initially had two faculties (Arts & Culture and Management & Commerce), based at Addalachchenai.

[10] The Faculty of Applied Sciences was established in 1997 with its base in Sammanthurai near Kalmunai.

[11] Senior non-academic staff include registrar H. Abdul Saththar, acting bursar Mr. C.M.

[15] The Faculty of Arts & Culture is divided into eight departments: Languages, Social Sciences, Geography, Sociology, Economic and Statistics, Political Science, English Language Teaching and Information Technology .