The University of Otago was established in 1869 under an act of the Otago Provincial Council. Initially, the university was provided with 100,000 acres of land and the authority to award degrees in medicine, arts, music, and law. The university started operations in July 1871 with just three faculty members and originally used a building on the site of John Wickliffe House located on Princess Street. Currently, the university has been divided into four academic departments; Otago Business School, Division of Health Sciences, Division of Humanities and Division of Sciences.

The university has four campuses across New Zealand. Situated in Dunedin, the main campus houses central administration, Otago Business School and the departments of sciences, humanities and health sciences. The Christchurch campus is home to Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences. The campus is also the center of distance learning, postgraduate education, research, and clinical education. The Wellington campus has the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and the Wellington City Office, which is responsible for admissions, summer school, alumni management, business networking, and research. The Auckland campus is responsible for children's issue, distance education, liaison, and course information. The Southland campus is located in Invercargill and provides numerous teacher education programs.

The University of Otago offers a broad-spectrum of graduate-level, Ph.D. and postgraduate-level programs in several fields of education like finance, economics, entrepreneurship, business, management, marketing, medicine, pharmacy, law, arts, social sciences, chemistry, physics, mathematics, zoology, botany, and computer science. The university houses more than 18,000 students and over 4,000 staff members. With a large population of international students and strong links with numerous international institutions, the university strives to provide students with a global perspective and employment opportunities abroad. Sonia, the student placement system of the university offers students a chance to increase their practical knowledge and hone their professional skills to secure placements from prestigious firms.

The university has an existing network of more than 100,000 alumni across 142 countries. There are several notable names associated with the university. Bhavneet Chahal is the co-founder of GoSkills, an e-learning company. Katie Lane is the media manager for Hayden Paddon, the Hyundai team driver of World Rally Championship (WRC). Dr. Maria Pozza is working as the first space lawyer in New Zealand specializing in space law. Mark Orton has worked on documentaries for the Discovery Channel, Natural History New Zealand, TVNZ, and National Geographic and has screened shows like High Country Rescue. Currently, he's working for the Al Jazeera network on a series of documentaries. Many other successful people are a part of the university's alumni network.