Approved by the Ministry of Education, the Three Gorges University was formed on May 25th, 2000 by the merger of the former Wuhan Institute of Water Resources and Electric Power (Yichang) and the former Hubei Three Gorges University. The former Wuhan University of Hydraulic and Electric Power (Yichang), formerly known as Gezhouba Hydropower Engineering College, was founded in 1978, and successively belonged to the Ministry of Water Resources and Electric Power, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Electric Power Industry and the State Power Company.

The history of the school can be traced back to 1923. Undergraduate education began in 1978, and it is the first batch of bachelor's degree awarding units in China. 1996 started postgraduate education, 1998 trained doctoral students. The school enrolls students from 3/kloc-0 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government and more than 60 countries (regions) nationwide, and has fully entered the first place in national enrollment.

The school has the right to confer doctoral degrees, recommend outstanding undergraduates to study for master's degrees without examination, enroll minority preparatory students, international students, China government scholarship students (CSC), clinical medical undergraduates (English teaching) and enroll students from Hong Kong and Taiwan provinces without examination.

The school is a university jointly established by the Ministry of Water Resources and the Hubei Provincial People's Government, and it is the "Excellent Engineer Education and Training Plan" of the Ministry of Education. In 20 18, the school was listed as "domestic first-class university construction university" by the provincial people's government, and three disciplines such as water conservancy engineering, civil engineering and electrical engineering were listed as "domestic first-class discipline construction disciplines".