Founded on 20th May 1955, Karadeniz Technical University (KTU) is the fourth oldest university in Republic of Turkey, and the first university established outside the biggest city of the country which is İstanbul and the capital city Ankara. After a period of 8 years, on 19th September, 1963, the faculties of Natural Sciences, Civil Engineering-Architecture, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and Forestry, which are the foundation stone of today's Karadeniz Technical University, were established. Four months later, on the 2nd December, 1963 the University began its educational activities. The campus site has been gradually expanding since then and with all kinds of social, cultural and sports requirements met on site, it has turned into an outstanding site set in a green belt of woodlands and playing grounds, which makes it one of the best campus settings in the world.

Expansion of the university continued with the opening of faculties of Earth Sciences and Medicine in 1973. 12 km away from the main campus, a new campus had been established where Faculty of Education with many departments in a variety of teaching fields had been set up. This new campus has been seperated from Karadeniz Technical Universiy in 2018 to form the second public university in the city named as Trabzon University. Karadeniz Technical University is still expanding with the introduction of new departments which are in the process of getting into active education and research. At the present time, Karadeniz Technical University is one of the largest universities in Turkey.