University Campus Suffolk had previously only been able to award degrees on behalf of the University of East Anglia and University of Essex.
Now as the University of Suffolk, it can award its own degrees, seek funding and make more of its own decisions.
It is hoped it will bring international students to the county.
Vice chancellor Richard Lister said: "Although we are community-based, this is not just about a university for Suffolk.
"We have to reverse the Suffolk brain drain, we have to bring in bright people from the rest of the country, from the rest of the world, to replace those bright Suffolk students that leave and go and study somewhere else."
The university currently has 4,500 students. It is hoped this will grow and there will be greater opportunities for the university to do more research.
Permission for university status was awarded by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education and the Privy Council in May.
Suffolk is officially home to its own independent university now its university campus has been rebranded and renamed.