The Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) is a public research university and institute of technology that was established in 1993 by a legislative act of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea with its primary purpose to advance national science and technology through education, research, and international and industrial cooperation. Located in Gwangju, South Korea, GIST is a member of STAR-MOOC, a specialized online open course service for the main science and technology universities in Korea, which includes KAIST, GIST, DGIST, UNIST, POSTECH, and UST.
The Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) was established by the South Korean government on August 5, 1993, following the enactment of the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology Act. Founded as a research-oriented graduate school, its primary mission was to foster highly skilled scientists and create a strong research and development (R&D) base for advanced technology in Korea.
On October 11, 1993, Dr. Doo-Bong Ha was inaugurated as the university's first president. The institute conferred its first master's degrees on February 27, 1997, and its first doctoral degrees on February 20, 2000.
In 2001, GIST became the first university in South Korea to introduce a "thesis quality certification program," which mandated that doctoral candidates publish in high-impact journals before graduation. On March 26, 2004, the university officially changed its English acronym from KJIST (Kwangju Institute of Science and Technology) to GIST, following the revised Romanization of the city's name from Kwangju to Gwangju.
In May 2008, an amendment to the GIST Act was passed by the National Assembly, authorizing the establishment of an undergraduate program to create a continuous science education track from bachelor's to doctoral levels.
GIST College, the university's undergraduate school, admitted its first class of 100 students in March 2010. The college implemented a liberal arts-based science curriculum, a first for technical institutes in South Korea. The first bachelor's degrees were conferred on February 25, 2014.
During this period, GIST achieved international prominence for research impact. Between 2013 and 2018, the university consistently ranked in the top 10 globally for "Citations per Faculty" in the QS World University Rankings.
In October 2019, GIST established its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Graduate School as part of a national strategy to lead in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In July 2023, Dr. Kichul Lim was inaugurated as the 9th President of GIST.
To commemorate its 30th anniversary in November 2023, GIST held a vision declaration ceremony titled "GIST Vision 2053." The initiative set a goal for the institute to become a top 50 global university by 2053 by nurturing 30 world-class scholars and fostering 30 "unicorn-level" tech companies. In January 2024, the university launched GIST Holdings to accelerate the commercialization of campus technologies and support regional economic development.
In the 2016/2017 QS World University Rankingsî Result tables, GIST was ranked number 2 in the world in the category of citations per faculty. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014âÂÂ2015, GIST was ranked 96th in the world in the category of Engineering & Technology.