Department of History is one of the oldest Departments in the University of Jaffna. Department of History has long tradition of producing competent graduates in history equipped with sound knowledge and skills. The Department of History was established when the faculty of Humanities started its functioning on December 2, 1974, when the Jaffna Campus was inaugurated and set up at the Parameswara College premises as one of the excellence unique subjects and it was headed by Professor K.Indrabala.

Under the guidance of Professor K.Indrabala functions of the department were started and the curriculum with course modules were prepared. Professors from University of Peradeniya, and University of Kelaniya had assisted for special degree lecture programs in the beginning. Also Professors from the Department of Tamil and Sanskrit of the Jaffna Campus then the University of Jaffna in 1979 had their contributions to share the interrelated course of studies with the Department of History until 1985. During this period the Department of History had provided two kind of course of directions to the students of History as Ancient history & Archaeology and Modern History.

On March 3rd 1975 Dr.K.Indrapala, the Dean of the Faculty was appointed as the first Professor of History. Mr.V.Sivasamy Lecturer in History at the under graduate Department of Jaffna college was absorbed into the staff of the new campus and he was the only member of the Department at the inception on 20th January,1975 Mr.S.K.Sitrampalam and Mr.S.Sathiaseelan were appointed as Temporary Assistant Lectures in the Department. On 21st of April they were appointed as Lecturer (Probationary).

Prof .S.Pathmanathan, Associate Professor, of University of Peradeniya was appointed to the chair of History in the University of Jaffna in 1986, following the resignation of Prof.K.Indrapala in 1985. In 1994 Prof.S.Pathmanathan was appointed as the Vice-Chairman of the University Grants Commission. Dr.S.K. Sitrampalam was appointed as the Professor of History in September 1996. Professor K.Indrapala was the first Head of the Department. Mr.Seelan Kathirkamar followed him as Head of the Department during June 1983 to July 1996, Prof.S.K.Sitrampalam served as the Head of the Department. Prof.S.Saththiaseelan was appointed to the post of Head of the Department in July 1996 and from 2008 to 2014, Professor P.Pushparatnam served as the Head of the Department, later Professor S.Kirshnarajah followed him as Head in 2015. In 2018 Snr.Professor Pushparatnam was appointed as the Head. on 1st of September,2020 Professor K.Arunthavarajah was appointed as the Head of the Department on 1st September, 2020 and he is functioning as the Head to date.

In 1984 the Departmental museum was established to study and store the artifacts that founded from excavations and explorations. It was damaged during both the I P K F operation and the exodus of 1995. In 2017 it was modernized in the name of Dr.K.Indrapala Archaeology Museum and an open space Archaeology Museum was established by the Donation of Central Cultural Fund. In 2018 an Archaeology Museum Laboratory was established by the U.S. Ambassador Fund for the Preservation of culture. It should be mentioned that the Department of History was instrumental in carrying out archaeological excavations at Anaicoddai in 1980. This helped to unearth new information about early settlement in the Jaffna region.

Further, our Department of History is started to release the students Journals under the patronage of the Historical society and Archaeology Study Circle and the names of the journals are Kalasurabi and Thedal.

Recently, the Department of History has introduced two special degree programmes, in 2003, a special degree programme in Archaeology was introduced and later, in 2017 a special degree programme in Cultural Tourism was commenced.

The Department of history Consist of an associate professor, a Senior Lecturer (Gr-I) and seven Lecturers. Currently, more than five hundred under graduates are following the degree programmes in our Department.