The history of UOS dates back to 1916 in the great institution of O’Brien Islamia High school in Shahpur Sadar. Later in 1929, the status of the school was raised to De’ Montmorency College. On May 1, 1929 Sir Henry Craik graced the inaugural occasion of the college. In the honor of Sir Henry, the new hostel of the college was named “Craik Hall”, currently known as “Tariq Hall”. Prof. Rana Abdul Hameed got the privilege of holding the office as the first principal and served the college till November 27, 1937. On June 1, 1932, the college was upgraded to graduate level. Consequent upon the declaration of Sargodha as a district in 1940, De’Montmorency College Shahpur was transferred to Sargodha city in the summer of 1946.
In December 1949, the college was relocated to its newly constructed building (Hall PAF college) from the Government High School No. 1. On May 3, 1950, Dr. Syed Abid Ahmed Ali took over charge as Principal of the college. After working in the Government High School No. 1 building for a while, the college finally moved to the current building of the college on the site of the Barrack Wala. In 1963, the college was officially named as Government College, Sargodha from De’Montmorency College.  Finally, on November 22, 2002, Government College Sargodha was given the status of the university, Dr Riaz ul Haq being the first Vice-Chancellor. Currently, Sargodha University is growing under the leadership of Vice-chancellor Prof. Dr. Qaisar Abbas.