Although the permission of the pope was granted in 1564 and of the emperor in 1566, the university was founded about ninety years later in 1654, after the acquisition of the Duchy of Cleves by Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg.

Since only about one third of the population in the western provinces of Prussia were member of The Reformed Church, most Lutheran and Catholic citizens in the second half of the 18th century sent their sons to other universities.

The university declined rapidly and was closed on 18 October 1818, due to a Cabinet Order of Friedrich Wilhelm III.

After a decision of the federal state government in 1960, the teacher training college of Kettwig was settled to Duisburg and was named Pedagogical University Ruhr.

The program is funded by the State of North Rhine-Westfalia (NRW) and the Mercator Research Center Ruhr (MERCUR) with €800,000 over the next four years and an additional €1 million being added by the three participating members of the University Alliance.

[15] It aims, through research and teaching, to promote the scientifically sound understanding of political processes (in North Rhine-Westphalia).

So far, recipients of the Mercator-Professur have been: Further professors include Jette Joop, Kai Krause and Bruce Ames.

[31] Since the summer semester 2000, the following personalities have worked as poet in residence at the University of Essen (later Duisburg-Essen): Earlier poets in residence (since the winter semester 1975/76) include Jurek Becker, Wilhelm Genazino, Günter Grass, Günter Herburger, Rolf Hochhuth, Heinar Kipphardt, Cees Nooteboom, Peter Rühmkorf, Martin Walser and Dieter Wellershoff [de].

[35] The offices aim to foster international academic exchange between the local and Ruhr area and are responsible for their respective continents.

[42] Measured by the number of top managers in the German economy, University of Duisburg-Essen ranked 15th in 2019.

[43] In May 2018 the Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung (CHE – Center for Higher Education Development) rankings placed the university in the top ranks in different categories and fields, like the Physics department for seminar and lecture content and Biology, Computer Science, Math, Medicine and Sports for excellent programs and support in the early stages of starting at Essen-Duisburg.

[44] In the European Commission-funded U-Multirank system the university as a whole was ranked as "excellent" in the research categories "External research income", "Top cited publications", "Post-doc positions", in the knowledge transfer categories "Income from private sources", "Spin-offs" and "Publications cited in patents".