The university was founded in 1952 from the combination of five former colleges. It known then as the Beijing Industrial Institute of Steel and Iron. It was renamed as Beijing Steel and Iron Institute in 1960. The University of Science and Technology Beijing name was not adopted until 1988.

In 1997, USTB was selected into the first tier of universities for China's 211 Project. The University has large departments in physics, chemistry, engineering, economics, and English. One of the largest departments is the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The University has about 20,000 undergraduate students and about 2,000 PhD and graduate students.