In the academic year 2002/2003, to meet market requirements and support society in facilitating the use of different software systems that are needed on a daily basis and to meet the increased reliance on software due to the emergence of the industrial revolution, it was necessary to consider the expertise and professionalism in developing software systems. Therefore, Zarqa University has established a software engineering department within the faculty of information technology to deal with the challenges of software development and graduate students who are capable of creating software professionally.

Studying software engineering provides students with key skills that are needed to develop and manage software systems, e.g., software requirements engineering, software design, software development, and software testing and management.

Designing and developing software systems requires varied skills, accuracy, and a great understanding of the system’s services and quality to avoid system failures that may cause material and human losses. Besides, there is an urgent need for coping with software complexity in terms of business needs and the point of view of the software users. Therefore, the existence of a knowledge field concerned with developing methodologies, methods, and tools to ensure the quality and reliability of all stages of software building and the software's fulfillment of its purpose has become a key matter. Specialists became acquainted with naming this field of knowledge "software engineering" and calling the specialists in this field "software engineers."

The department of software engineering at Zarqa University offers a regular bachelor's program in software engineering. The student is awarded a degree in software engineering after completing 132 academic credit hours. Also, the department offers regular study for the master's program in software engineering with its two tracks, thesis and comprehensive. The student is awarded a certificate in software engineering after completing 33 academic credit hours.

The department includes highly equipped laboratories such as the software engineering tools laboratory and the terminal station laboratory, in addition to several personal computer laboratories, and the department always seeks to update and increase its various equipment. It also connects the different laboratories with a modern optical fiber network connected with servers under the environments of Unix, Linux, and Windows. The department also includes a group of faculty members with high levels of scientific and practical teaching experience and a high level of research and knowledge capabilities.