Urmia is an ancient city located in North West of Iran and is the seat of West Azerbaijan province. The old Campus of the University which is now being used as the University headquarters has originally been built and used by the American Presbyterian Missionary on and about 1878. Then Faculty of Medicine involved in training physicians for this area. Five rounds of graduates from the Medical College totaled 26 physicians. In fact several of them practiced medicine in this province and their greatest contribution were mainly centered on sanitation, health and medication. We greatly owe the lowering of infantile mortality rate in those years in this region to the graduates of this center. The American medical team was headed by the late Dr. Joseph Cochran and his medical associates whose remains exist in an old cemetery in the vicinity of Urmia City. There they lie in peace away from homeland and the testimonial epitaphs on their tombs signify their endeavor and devotion to humanity.

In 1965 Rezaiyeh College of Agriculture presided by Eng. Shaybanee was founded at the old campus. The college involved in training undergraduates in agricultural sciences. The academic staff were limited and the student body ranged 20-39 for each academic year. The courses were designed to graduate Associate Diploma. Those interested in the field, could continue up to Bachelor's Degree at the Karaj Agricultural College of Tehran University.

In 1969 an agreement was signed between the Near East Foundation (N.E.F.) and the Ministry of Culture to expand the existing two year Agricultural College to a four year program and Dr. J. Rassi was presided as the Dean. The N.E.F. representatives undertook the preparation of the curriculum for the four year Rezaiyeh College of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry. The curriculum entailed: Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Home Economics. During the first year N.E.F. was at the College, five departments were planned as a starting structure: Basic Science, Plant Science, Animal Sciences, Agricultural Engineering and Rural Education. The general library was quickly stocked with selective books and the new student enrollment rose to 150 each year.

At the beginning of N.E.F.'s involvement with the College of Agriculture, a large agricultural farm was purchased at Nazloo, in the vicinity of the city, as the site for the new campus. The Nazloo campus was located on the route to the Sero border with turkey with a distance of 19km from the old campus. Originally, a set of farm buildings fro dairy cattle, sheep and poultry was built at the new campus to serve the purpose of practical training for the agricultural students.

Following the establishment of the College of Agriculture in 1965, two other colleges namely, College of Veterinary Medicine and College of Science were augmented in 1975 and 1977, respectively. This resulted in the foundation of the presently named Urmia University which was great demand for a spacious campus was strongly felt. Dr. J. Rassi, the former Chancellor began his extensive activity to expand the Nazloo campus. Plans for the construction developments for the Colleges of Agriculture, Veterinary Medicine, and Science was approved in the course of time and the new campus was developed during the past 23 years. Eventually the new Nazloo campus became the site for all three colleges of Urmia University.

It would be worth mentioning that in 1978 Faculty of Medicine was established in Urmia University and it was in operation until 1985 when it was detached due to rearragements at the ministry level.

Urmia University was later expanded further by the addition of College of Letters and Humanities (1987) located at a new campus within the city, and College of Engineering created the fourth campus located at the outskirts of the city on the route to the Nazloo campus. In 1996 a Junior College of Engineering became operational at the city of Khoy located 120km north of Urmia for the training of students in the area of Rural Development.

• Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Urmia University
• Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Urmia University
• Nanotechnology Institute of Urmia, Urmia University