While the modern university was founded on May 17, 1973, the first school of higher education was established in 1627 by the Jesuits and enjoyed equal status with the academies in the largest cities of the Austrian Empire.

[dubious – discuss] The modern day university was established during 1970's, a decade of exponential rise in number of higher education institutions in the former Yugoslavia when alongside Rijeka universities in Osijek, Kragujevac, Split, Mostar, Podgorica, Bitola, Maribor, Banja Luka and Tuzla all opened their doors.

Both programmes introduce the foundations of programming, algorithms, data structures, digital electronics, computer architecture, computer networks, operating systems, databases, information systems, formal languages and automata theory, software engineering, logic programming, web engineering, multimedia and information theory.

[7] The Center organizes the annual conference of iconographic studies, as well as lectures, workshops and symposia, international networking and research projects, and it is involved in doctoral programs.

The Department of Art History at the University of Rijeka in collaboration with the Department of Theology at the University of Zagreb organized the first conference of iconographic studies in 2007, and thus conceived the idea of establishing the center that is intended to become the platform for academics from different disciplines in researching the interpretation of visual arts.

[8] In 2011 CIS organized Art History Day in Rijeka, which has become an annual event for the region, especially oriented towards students and younger people.

The Center for Advanced Studies of Southeastern Europe (CAS – SEE) "is an organizational unit of the University of Rijeka specialized in the social sciences and humanities.

The vision of the Center is to promote freedom of research and to ensure the necessary prerequisites for innovative, intellectual and scientific development.

Biggest examples are Onetius, Student Day Festival, Riteh Racing Team, NeuRi and Debate League of Rijeka.