Located in Seoul, the university was established in 1971 as the nation’s first graduate school specializing in science and engineering education and research. It has close collaborative relations with Seoul National University and Pohang University of Science and Technology. Its Graduate School of Management was founded in 1996 and was subsequently merged with Graduate School of Finance to form KAIST Business School. In the 2008 THES - QS World University Rankings published by Time Magazine, KAIST was placed among the top 100 with other prestigious school in the West. Moreover, the school was also ranked among the top 60 in the 2008 D-Schools: The Global List, published by BusinessWeek (http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports talenthunt/), which is considered an exceptional achievement for an Asian school.

The history of Sungkyunkwan University can be traced back to 1398, as the first public higher education institution establish during the Joseon Dynasty (AD1392 - AD1910); since then, the school has been around for over 600 years. In 1946, the university was reincorporated as a private institution, and it had become the nation’s first-rate higher education, cultivating numerous highly talented professionals for the country each year. Especially, with Samsung Group as the main sponsor since 1996, the school has began pushing forward for a long-term development strategy, “Hope 2010,” in which the project has gone through the “reformation” period, and now into its "leaping” period, with making the school a world-renowned university as its goal.