KAIST, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, is located in Daejeon, South Korea. Its founding philosophy page says it opened in 1971 with a special legislative mandate from the Korean government and was formally founded on 16 February 1971, with six departments and 40 master’s candidates. It was originally placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Science and Technology. Choongsik Bae became KAIST’s 18th President in July 2026.
KAIST is organised into 5 colleges, 7 schools, 13 graduate schools and 27 departments. Its overview page lists 12,348 students: 4,009 bachelor’s, 3,767 master’s, 2,896 PhD and 1,676 joint master’s and PhD students. It reports 731 faculty and 907 staff, and 82,333 alumni.