The establishment of the University of Liverpool stems from the needs of urban development. Like the universities established in the same period, serving the local industry and Commerce has become the primary task of the University.

The predecessor of the University of Liverpool, the University College of Liverpool, was founded in 1881. The first batch of students entered the University in 1882 and became a part of Victoria University in England in 1884.

From 1880 to 1903, the university had formed its own characteristics. In 1894, the world's first public radio transmission system was born at the University of Liverpool. Two years later, at the University of Liverpool, X-ray was first used in surgery in England. In 1899, the University of Liverpool press was founded. It is one of the three oldest university press in England. During that period, students at the University of Liverpool received degrees from the University of London.

In 1903, the University of Liverpool was upgraded to an independent university by Royal Charter and national assembly. Since then, the University of Liverpool has made great achievements in many fields, including Sir Charles sherlington's discovery of synapses, Professor William blebel's research on chemotherapy for cancer, and Joseph Rothblatt's contribution to the development of the atomic bomb in the 1930s and 1940s. From 1943 to 1966, Alan Downey, a professor of Bacteriology, participated in the eradication of smallpox.

In 1994, the University of Liverpool became one of the founding members of the world-famous Russell university group, which includes 24 of Britain's top research universities. The university is also a founding member of the N8 University Alliance.

Nine alumni and faculty of the University of Liverpool have won the Nobel Prize. They are doctors Ronald Roth, Charles Glover barkra, physiologist Scott sherlington, physicist James Chadwick, chemist Robert Robinson, physiologist Hal Gobin horana, Rodney Porter and Wu Joseph Rotblatt, a neo Confucianist, and Ronald Coase, an economist. Among them, Ronald Ross is the first British Nobel Prize winner.