The preparatory office of "Kaohsiung Municipal Open Community University" began to function with the approval of Kaohsiung City Government in February, 1996. Then "The Open University of Kaohsiung" was formally founded with the approval of Ministry of Education in January, 1997 and started the student recruitment for the 1st semester in August, 1997. Due to an amazing number of sign-ups, the selection of candidates was determined by drawing a lot.

The first president was Dr. Hsieh, Shuei-Nan, Dr. Chung, Chi- Ming, Dr. Wu, Edward Ming-Yang for the second and the third one, and Dr. Wu, Eing-Ming is the fourth (incumbent) president.

In the beginning, the university had five departments, namely, Department of Law & Political Science, Department of Industrial & Business Administration, Department of Mass Communication, Department of Foreign Languages & Literature, and Department of Culture & Art. Department of Technology Management and General Education Center were added to the university in 2006.