Its chancellor is the rector of the Academy of Limoges (an administrative district in France for education and research).

The oldest historical continuity is that of the faculties of pharmacy and medicine dating back to 1626.

At the time of its creation it counted 7,000 students and soon expanded to 15,000 making it a middle size university in France.

It inherits from a long tradition of research, innovation and teaching possibly dating back in the Middle Ages from the famed Abbaye Saint-Martial de Limoges founded in 848 and suppressed by the French Revolution in 1891, which was a major intellectual center in Medieval Europe (technology of materials, enamel, manuscripts, scholarship, liturgy, theater, etc.).

The university offers bachelor, master and doctorate degrees in line with the Bologna Process.