It is the post-secondary institution that emerged after the disestablishment of the Serbian-language University of Pristina as a result of the Kosovo War.

[4] The original university (University of Priština) was established in the city of Priština, SAP Kosovo, Socialist Republic of Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia, for the academic year 1969–70[5][6] and functioned until 1999.

[7][8] However, owing to political upheaval, war, successive mutual expulsions of faculty of one ethnicity or the other, and resultant pervasive ethnic-based polarization, currently, there are two separate, disjoint institutions, both using the same name, albeit each notated idiosyncratically, to reflect their polarized ethnic identity and divergent physical locations, separate Albanian and Serbian entities.

The University of Priština headquartered in Kosovska Mitrovica is a Serbian entity displaced from the city of Priština in 1999, conducting education in Serbian language, backed by the Government of Serbia[9] (recognized by United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) since 2002 but under the name University of Mitrovica[10][11][12][13]) [7][6][14] having taken up physical residence in North Mitrovica, a city in the northern ethnically Serbian region of Kosovo.

After moving back to Kosovo only 6,500 students continued their education at the university.