Yorkville University was established in 2003 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The University is a private, non-denominational institution and offers professionally-oriented academic programs at both the undergraduate and graduate level. In March 2004, Yorkville University was designated under the New Brunswick Degree Granting Act to offer the Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology (MACP). The MACP reaches students in all Canadian provinces and in the United States, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. The degree is recognized by the New Brunswick Department of Education as an approved program for upgrading a teacher's certificate. In 2007, the University acquired the Ontario-based RCC Institute of Technology (RCCIT). RCCIT is authorized under the Ontario Post-secondary Choice and Excellence Act, 2000 to offer three undergraduate degrees: the Bachelor of Technology in Electronics Engineering; the Bachelor of Business Information Systems; and the Bachelor of Interior Design. These programs are offered in the metropolitan Toronto area and the Bachelor of Interior Design, and Bachelor of Business Information Systems courses are available online. In October 2011, the Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick signed an order-in-council designating Yorkville University to offer the Master of Education (Adult Education) program. Classes began online in January 2012. In March 2012, Yorkville University was designated to offer the Bachelor of Business Administration program; classes began in October 2012. In December 2014, Yorkville University was designated to offer an additional Master of Education with a specialization in Leadership; classes began in May of 2015. The University has also received permission from the New Brunswick Minister of PostSecondary Education, Training, and Labour to develop a professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology. In 2012, the Board of Governors approved a strategic initiative to achieve degree and university consent in British Columbia. In August 2015, British Columbia’s Minister of Advanced Education provided final consent for Yorkville University to use the term ‘university’ in B.C. and to offer a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with specializations in Energy Management, Project Management, Accounting and Supply Chain Management; in 2018 this consent was extended to include a General BBA. In 2017, the Ontario Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development granted consent for Yorkville University to deliver online and on-campus in Ontario a Bachelor of Business Administration with a specialization in Project Management. That same year, RCC Institute of Technology was amalgamated into the University and the RCC degree programs were transferred to Yorkville University. 

As an institution of higher learning, Yorkville University is dedicated to practitioner-oriented professional education, to excellence in teaching, to maintaining the highest standards of academic integrity and academic freedom, to assuring the curriculum offered stays current and relevant, and to providing a learning option for people whose life circumstances might otherwise restrict their opportunity for academic and professional advancement. Faculty members, staff, and students are encouraged to search for and disseminate knowledge, truth and understanding, to foster independent thinking and expression, and to engage in research within their discipline or within the scholarship of e-learning and e-teaching. Academic freedom includes: o the right of faculty members to teach and discuss all aspects of their subject with their students, while not introducing controversial matter which has no relation to their subject; o the right of students to question all aspects of the subjects they are learning, while not introducing controversial matter which has no relation to these subjects; o the right of faculty members, staff, and students to carry out research and to disseminate and publish the results thereof; to produce and perform creative works; to engage in service to the institution and the community; to acquire, preserve, and provide access to documentary material in all formats; and to participate in professional and representative academic bodies; and o the right of faculty members, staff and students to speak and write as citizens without censorship from the institution; while, at all times, being accurate, exercising appropriate restraint, showing respect for the opinions of others, and making every effort to indicate that they are not speaking on behalf of the institution. Academic freedom does not include the right to use one's position to promote particular ideologies or religious beliefs. Academic freedom requires that faculty members, staff, and students play a role in the governance of the institution, with faculty members assuming a predominant role in determining curriculum, assessment standards, and other academic matters.