Gwangju University is founded by Dr. Kim In-Kon in 1980 upon the spirit of fostering honest and competent individuals. GU is proud of its high reputation with the best educational conditions; the high ratio of faculty members, facilities professors. As of 2018, around 7,000 students were enrolled in 42 departments of 5 colleges and about 75,000 have been graduated.

Gwangju University has excellent welfare facilities for students including dormitories that can accommodate up to 2,000 students with air-conditioning and high-speed internet networks. GU supports students and graduates toward obtaining employment through special programs; internships for industrial companies and supporting start-up companies that GU introduced for the first time in the country. Furthermore, GU has academic exchange programs with around 60 universities in USA, Japan, China, Russia, Australia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Nigeria and is working on nurturing in international work force through exchange-student programs. Based on its well-developed school infrastructure ,Gwangju University has been selected for various projects by many national institutions including the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Ministry of Employment and Labor, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the National Police Agency, and have been recognised for its academic status as a prestigious private university. From 2012 to 2015, Gwangju University was selected as ‘University Education Capacity Enhancement Project’ organized by Ministry of Education for four consecutive years. Gwangju University was also selected for about 20 projects including G-Tep (Glocal Trade Experts incubating Program) organized by the Ministry of Trade and Industry nine consecutive years for the first time among the four-year-universities in Gwangju and Chonlanam-do confirming GU is as one of the top universities.

Gwangju University was recognised as ‘Accredited University’ by the Korean University Accreditation Institute in 2017. GU earned the certificate of university evaluation in 2012 and successfully passed the second round university evaluation in 2017, which allows GU to maintain the university evaluation certificate until 2022. By being nominated as Self-Improvement University from Evaluation of University Common Competency managed by the Ministry of Education in 2018, GU will do the best to nurture the students who are willing to dedicate themselves to national and community development.