At the Fourth ASEAN Summit, held in Singapore in January 1992, ASEAN leaders directed that ASEAN should help hasten the solidarity and the development of a regional identity by considering ways to further strengthen the existing network of the leading universities and institutions of higher learning in the region. The idea was later developed into ASEAN University Network (AUN) which was established in November 1995 with the signing of its Charter by the Ministers responsible for Higher Education from ASEAN countries, the signing of the Agreement on the Establishment of the AUN by the presidents/rectors/vice-chancellors of participating universities and the formation of AUN Board of Trustees.

The main objective of the AUN is to strengthen the existing network of co-operation among leading universities in ASEAN, by promoting co-operation and solidarity among ASEAN scholars and academicians, developing academic and professional human resource, and promoting information dissemination among ASEAN academic community. The network has brought together the ASEAN countries' individual quest for academic collaborations in the identified priority areas that would deepen understanding of the dynamic ASEAN, and accordingly hasten regional identity and solidarity.