The University of Salento aims to serve society by educating the leaders of tomorrow and extending the frontiers of knowledge. The fundamental strength of our university is based on freedom of thought and opinion, transparency and meritocracy.

In 1767, the Jesuits who monopolized teaching in the Land of d’Otranto (terra d’Otranto) were out cast by Ferdinand IV when he closed the schools and colleges they had founded. This created the birth of Royal Schools (Scuole Regie) where control of the schools was shifted to the state and teaching was transformed from church based doctrine to enlightened secularism teaching.

In the first decades of the 1800s, as a natural consequence of the spreading of schools and public colleges, The Royal University (la Regia Università) was instituted in the Land of Otranto, with poor results.

In 1852, after a period of Bourbonic repression, the Jesuits reclaimed the Royal Academy (Regio Liceo), which they renamed the College of Lecce ( Collegio Leccese). The unification of Italy represented a new disruption of teaching in the South which saw the suppression of almost all universities and a prohibition against higher education. This restriction affected the Academy of Lecce as well, with the suspension of all teaching posts. On 18th of June 1869 The University of Legal Science was founded. It was directed by Rector Vitaliano Pizzolante and his Vice Rector Leonardo Stampacchia.  An endeavour that terminated after only two years.

Even though there was a strong request for a university in Lecce, the situation was not resolved until 1955, when The University Consortium was founded. It worked with the Province of Lecce and the majority of towns in the surrounding area to create the Autonomous  Magisterium Institute ( Istituto autonomo di Magistero) that while waiting to be recognized legally in form and planning, e.g. nationalized, started the first university courses. Legal recognition arrived in 1959 which allowed matriculated students to earn the first spendable recognized degree. The university was recognised as a national university in the academic year 1967-1968, with the institution of the Faculty of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences.
In 1987 the Faculty of Economics and Financial Science was born, which today is named the Faculty of Economics and Commerce, while the Faculty of Engineering was instituted in the academic year 1990/91. In 1995 the degree program in Foreign Languages and Literature was transformed into the Faculty of Languages.

In 1997 the first lessons from the Faculty of Cultural Heritage were started, along with the institution of the Science of Educational Training Faculty. 1998 opened the door of the Law Faculty and in 1997-98 the Faculty of Engineering started diploma courses in Logistics and Production Engineering, which today is a degree course in Industrial Engineering.
At the Brindisi campus of the university, a second Faculty of Engineering is named the Faculty of Industrial Engineering, in which one of the degree programs is Master of Aerospace Engineering. Also, in 2006-2007 at the Brindisi campus, the Faculty of Social, Political, and Regional Science was instituted.
In September of 2006 the Lecce University of Studies was renamed the University of Salento in order to respond to the growth of the university in the Salentine territory with the addition of the Brindisi campus.