[4] Seoul National University (SNU) originates from various educational institutions established by King Gojong of the Joseon dynasty.

By means of the issue of a royal order, the law academy Beopkwan Yangseongso [ko] has been founded on March 25, 1895.

After the proclamation of the Korean Empire in 1897, Gojong, the then emperor, was motivated to create more modern education institutions.

The Hanja that were used in the name were pronounced in the Korean reading and the attribute "Imperial" was removed and changed to "National".

SNU was founded on August 27, 1946, by merging ten institutions of higher education around the Seoul area.

[5] For over a year and a half, there was a protest movement by students and professors against the law of the U.S. military government in Korea merging colleges.

In 2012, lawmakers reported that the ruling Saenuri Party, prior to the presidential election in December, seriously proposed a plan to relocate the university to the newly established special autonomous Sejong City.

Originally the national government had approached the university in 2009 to host the building of a satellite campus.

In February 2010 Seoul National initiated a memorandum with the city of Siheung to establish a global campus.

Signed with the city's mayor and governor of Gyeonggi Province for administrative assistance, the university acquired 826 thousand m2 (204 acres) of property in the west-coast economic zone, near the Songdo International Business District, Pyeongtaek harbor, international airport, seaport.

[18] Along with lecture halls and additional liberal arts and graduate courses, the initiative will add a medical complex including a research hospital and training centre, research centre for dentistry and clinical pharmacology, dormitories, apartments, an international middle and high school, and other facilities.

Planning to open the international campus in 2014, the university intends to share the initiative with other regional national institutions.

The chief librarian, Dr. Kim Jong-seo, professor of religious studies in the College of Humanities, took office in 2009.

As of 2022, the library is home to 5.2 million volumes of books as well as over 260,000 academic journals and e-journals, and over 230,000 non-book materials.

The digital library offers access to video of university exhibitions, scientific events, symposia, and seminars.

The original library was organized into 12 annexes for each of the university's colleges: engineering, education, physics, art, law, theology, pharmacology, music, medicine, dentistry, administration, and agricultural sciences.

However, as the main branch was moved to the Gwanak Campus, the education, physics, legal, theological, administrative, newspaper, liberal arts, and pharmacological libraries were combined in a single building.

It functions as a key repository of Korean historical records and a centre for research and publication of the annual journal Kyujanggak.

The original two-story Dongsung-dong building, which was erected in 1941, had served as the Keijō Imperial University Museum until it was transferred intact to SNU.

The building was designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, with construction entrusted to the Samsung Group.

The capacity of the arena is 5,000 and was built in 1986 to host table tennis and badminton (demonstration) events at the 1988 Summer Olympics.

[42] Between 2003 and 2009, more students who graduated from science high schools and received presidential scholarships matriculated at SNU than at eight other leading universities combined.

[55] Many of the earlier batch of foreign professors left after complaining of racial discrimination against them, sometimes without even giving notice.

[54] Among its notable alumni are prominent figures in international organizations and businesses such as Ban Ki-moon, the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations (UN); Hoesung Lee, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); Song Sang-hyun, former president of the International Criminal Court (ICC); Lee Jong-wook, the sixth director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), O-Gon Kwon, former vice president and permanent judge in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY); Kwon Oh-hyun, former CEO and vice chairman of Samsung Electronics; and Bang Si-hyuk, the chairman and founder of HYBE Corporation.