In 1984, the founder chairman of the institute, Kalvivallal Sri. T. Kalasalingam, established the institute as an engineering college with the name of Arulmigu Kalasalingam College of Engineering through the Kalasalingam Anandam Ammal Charity trust. His philanthropic vision to promote the dry-tract of the Virudhunagar district through education gradually materialized. The institute obtained Deemed to be University status in the year 2006 and named as Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education (KARE). KARE is near the Thirumangalam-Kollam highway (NH 744) at a distance of 65 km from Madurai and 12 km from Srivilliputtur.

KARE spreads over 163 acres in the foothill of Western-Ghats with a built-up area of 21,59,274 square foot in a pleasant green eco-friendly campus with 30% greenery of its total area in the foothills of the Western Ghats. KARE offers 32 undergraduate, 22 postgraduate and 17 Ph.D. programs in all arts, science, management and technology domains. KARE is the first institution in India to offer B. Tech. for the Speech &Hearing Impaired Students (SHIP). A special B.Ed. (Hearing Impaired) program approved by the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) is offered. KARE also offers B.Voc. programs in 5 domains.

KARE was re-accredited by NAAC in 2015 with ‘A’ grade and CGPA of 3.11 out of 4. NBA has accredited six of undergraduate engineering programs namely Biotechnology, Civil Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Communication Engineering and Mechanical Engineering NBA under Tier–I category. KARE habitually participates in the NIRF ranking process since the beginning and ranked 61st under engineering category nationwide recently. Among the institutions in TamilNadu (includes IIT-Madras, Anna University, NIT-Trichy), this rank works to 11th place. KARE obtained 4th rank among Indian Universities in UI Green-Metric Ranking 2018. And KARE was received AAAA rating among the institutions in India by ‘Career 360’ Ranking. KARE established an International Research Center encompassing an Advanced Instrumentation Center to cater to the needs of researchers in the field of material science with high-end instruments worth more than Rs. 2 Crore with a research focus on composite materials, crystallography, solid state ionics including nanomaterials for energy and biological applications. Sponsored projects worth more than Rs. 3 Crore are ongoing in this center. In addition, the institution has many Centre of Excellence in Biotechnology, Networking, Cyber Security, National Instruments, Bosch, etc. KARE has impressive placement records with more than 150 companies visiting every year. About 47% of the faculty members are Ph.D. holders, and many of them are having doctoral or post-doctoral experiences abroad.