Soongsil University was founded on October 10, 1897, in Pyongyang as a private school by William M. Baird, a missionary of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of Foreign Missions.

The name Soongsil roughly means "Revering [God] (숭 soong) with Truth and Integrity (실 sil)".

The academy was called Union Christian College (합성숭실대학), which was later authorized as a university by the Korean government in 1907.

In August 1945 Korea was liberated from Japanese colonialism, but the effort to restore the Soongsil College did not succeed until after the end of the Korean War.

In April 1954 Soongsil College was reestablished in South Korea and in June 1957 it moved to the present-day Sangdo-dong Campus.

Its computer science field, which Soongsil was a pioneer in Korea, is currently ranked second after Seoul National University.