Although the university was inaugurated in 1974, its history goes back to 1959, when the first thoughts about establishing a centre for higher education in Northern Jutland were aired by the principal of Aalborghus Statsgymnasium (a state upper secondary/high school in Aalborg), Carl Willum Hansen. He saw it as a problem that young people from Northern Jutland wanting to continue their education beyond high school had to leave the region for universities and other institutions of higher education in other parts of Denmark because of a lack of these kinds of educational institutions in Northern Jutland. Especially because most of the young people who left the region did not return to Northern Jutland after having finished their education somewhere else. In that way Northern Jutland became drained of an important part of its youth.

As a first step towards furthering higher education in Northern Jutland, a regional trade council (Nordjyllands Erhvervsrad) established a Committee for an Engineering Academy in 1961. The primary assignment of the committee was to establish a department of Denmark's Engineering Academy (DIA) in Aalborg, and in 1966 it became a reality. Already in 1964, however, the committee stated a new and broader goal, namely the establishment of Denmark's fourth university.

Throughout the latter part of the 1960s an increasing debate took place about the expansion and location of institutions of higher education in Denmark. Many associations, institutions and organizations in Northern Jutland worked energetically for the establishment of a university, and the idea received a historically unusual and strong cross-party popular support. Advocates of a university in Northern Jutland represented executives from the local business community as well as from the social, cultural and political areas of society.

In 1974 a number of already existing educational institutions either entirely or partly became integrated into what was to be called Aalborg University Centre (AUC). The institutions that became integrated were: The Business Economics' Department of the Business School of Aalborg; Denmark's Engineering Academy's Aalborg Department; The Engineering College of Aalborg; and The School of Social Work of Aalborg. In addition the Surveyor Educational Programme was transferred from The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen, and many other new educational programmes were initiated at AUC as well. (The university did not, however, become Denmark's fourth but fifth university, as the town of Roskilde managed to have its plans for a university centre carried out first.)

In 1994 Aalborg University Centre changed its name to Aalborg University (AAU), and in 1995 the cooperation between Aalborg University and the School of Engineering in the town of Esbjerg led to a merger of the two, resulting in what is today Aalborg University Esbjerg, encompassing the fields of Natural Sciences and Engineering.

The university continues to develop its physical as well as academic scope in such a way that the university will continue to be a modern and dynamic university at a national as well as international level ? to the benefit of all parties.