[7] The University Times was founded in 2009 by Robert Donohoe, the then-Communications Officer of Trinity College Dublin Students' Union.

[15] The print edition of The University Times was redesigned in 2014 by the paper's then-Creative Director, Edmund Heaphy, and under the editorship of Leanna Byrne.

[25] A 2016 report prepared by a committee of senior members of Trinity College Dublin Students' Union alleged that staff of the newspaper, including then-editor Edmund Heaphy, had engaged in what rival newspaper Trinity News described as "serious breaches of journalistic conduct", including fabrication of evidence, mistreatment of staff, and biased and unfair reporting.

In March 2019, reporting conducted by the newspaper about hazing in a secret society known as the Knights of the Campanile aroused controversy due to the paper's use of a covert recording device during its investigations.

Rival student newspaper Trinity News suggested that the use of a recording device amounted to a "bugging" and called on the editor of The University Times, Eleanor O'Mahony, to step down.

[28][29][30][31] The University Times defended the secret recording, suggesting that its reporting was in the public interest and thus that the practice was protected by law.

[33] Former Attorney General Michael McDowell, however, defended The University Times, calling their conclusion "clearly wrong", and noting that the situation was "inherently more complex than their analysis suggests".

[34] Andrea Martin, a solicitor who had previously led the in-house legal team at RTÉ, similarly defended the reporting.

[34] In the immediate aftermath of the controversy, more than 500 students signed a petition in order to hold a referendum on a proposal to slash the funding of The University Times and make the position of editor unpaid.

[13] Chris Frost, the chair of the ethics council of the National Union of Journalists, called the referendum an "appalling attempt to curtail a free press" and said that the reporting and methods used in the Knights of the Campanile story were "beyond reproach and consistent with the highest professional standards of public interest, investigative journalism.

"[35][36] The referendum attracted national attention, including from columnist Gene Kerrigan, who said that a vote to cut the paper's funding would be an endorsement of the "sordid behaviour" exposed by the newspaper's journalists.