Kumasi Technical University was initially established in 1954 as Kumasi Technical Institute and later as a non-tertiary Polytechnic under the Ghana Education Service in October 13, 1963 offering Technician, Diploma and Sub-Professional programmes alongside the craft programmes.

In 1992 the Polytechnics were restructured with the enactment of the Polytechnics Law, 1992 (PNDCL 321). Under this law, the status of Polytechnics were raised to the level of tertiary institutions with the mandate to run Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes with a provision to mount degree programmes in future.