Umaru Musa Yar’Adua University (UMYU), formerly Katsina State University, was established by the Katsina State Government in 2006, to "serve as a nucleus for socio-economic, technological and political development of the State by producing highly skilled human resource through conventional face-to-face and distance learning modes." Umaru Musa Yar'adua, then the executive governor of Katsina State and later the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, began the work of creating the university before his death in 2010.

The law establishing the Katsina State University was passed by the Katsina State House of Assembly on 5 September 2006, and the University commenced academic activities in January 2007 with three faculties (Education, Humanities, and Natural and Applied Sciences), and 16 undergraduate programmes. The State House of Assembly passed a law changing the name of the university to honor Umaru Musa Yar'adua on 8 April 2009.

The first 25 years of the university's existence have been divided into four phases—three phases of 5 years each, followed by a 10-year phase. In each phase, the university will add faculties, departments, and academic programmes, until it has a total of 13 faculties, 76 departments and 236 academic programmes (undergraduate and postgraduate).

The Visitor of the University is the serving governor of the state (currently Aminu Bello Masari); the Chancellor is Nigeria's one-time Minister of Economic Development, Dr. Umaru Mutallab; and the current Vice Chancellor (as of 2021) is Professor Sanusi Mamman.