KAIST was established by the Korean government in 1971 as the nation's first public, research-oriented science and engineering institution.

[14] The institute's two main functions were to train advanced scientists and engineers and develop a structure of graduate education in the country.

In the same year KAIST and the Korea Institute of Technology (KIT) combined and moved from Seoul to the Daedeok Science Town in Daejeon.

The university is mainly located in the Daedeok Science Town in the city of Daejeon, 150 kilometers south of the capital Seoul.

Daedeok is also home to some 50 public and private research institutes, universities such as CNU and high-tech venture capital companies.

Most lectures, research activities, and housing services are located in the Daejeon main campus.

The Institute for Basic Science (IBS) Center for Axion and Precision Physics Research is located here doing particle and nuclear physics related to dark matter and the Rare Isotope Science Project has the Superconducting Radio Frequency test facility.

Each KI is operated as an independent research center at the level of a college, receiving support in terms of finance and facilities.

[26] This change, along with a new system mandating English-only classes, led to 11 members of KAIST committing suicide from 2011 to 2016.

In February 2018, the Korea Times published an article which stated that KAIST was starting an AI weapons research project together with the Korean arms manufacturer Hanwha.

[28] In February 2024, a KAIST professor was found guilty by an appellate court of leaking autonomous vehicle technologies to China between 2017 and 2020, leading to a two year prison sentence.

Despite a lower court having sentenced the professor to two years in prison with a three-year suspended sentence in 2021, KAIST did not take any disciplinary action, instead offering only a public apology and a promise to improve its transparency[29] KAIST was ranked 56th worldwide in the QS WUR 2024, 91st worldwide in the THE WUR 2023, 282nd in the USNWR Rankings 2022-2023, and 201-300th in ARWU 2022.

KAIST was the 111th best-ranked university worldwide in 2022 in terms of aggregate performance across THE, QS, and ARWU, as reported by ARTU.

[44][verification needed] KAIST was again recognized as a number one University in Korea by JoongAng Ilbo Review.

[50] Times Higher Education ranked KAIST the 3rd best university in the world under the age of 50 years in its 2015 league table.