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KRI, along with UNSW Sydney and the Korean Government, played a pivotal role in KoSASA's foundation. After the foundation of KRI, it was apparent that a non-political, academic organisation for contact, communication and scholarly activities in Southeast Asia focused on the study of Korea was required to facilitate its development. Since its inception, KRI supported KoSASA as a joint secretariat with KoSASA Secretariat in the President’s institution. Through this collaboration, KRI and KoSASA became pioneers in developing Korean Studies in Southeast Asia, Korea and Australasia.

The key governance mechanism for KoSASA is the KoSASA Advisory Board which consists of the nine presidents of KoSASA member universities, a representative from KRI and the presidents of participating Korean universities. A KoSASA Advisory Board meeting has been conducted annually since its inception. In September 2015, the meeting was held in Seoul. The next meeting will be held at the bi-annual 2016 KoSASA International Conference in Manila. The President & Vice-Chancellor of UNSW Sydney, Professor Ian Jacobs has agreed to attend the KoSASA Advisory Board Meeting in Manila.

KoSASA's president is elected by its Advisory Board. The Inaugural President of KoSASA was late Professor Le Van Quang, Vice Rector, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hochiminh City, succeeded by Professor Vo Van Sen. The second to sixth presidents of KoSASA were Professor A Hamid A Hadi, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, the University of Malaya, succeeded by Professor Mohd Amin Jalaludin; Professor Soottiporn Chittmittrapap, Vice President, Chulalongkorn University; Professor Sunardji SE, MM, Vice Rector of Universitas Indonesia; Professor Nguyen Van Khanh, Rector of University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi and Professor Mohd Hamdi Bin Abd Shukor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic and International, University of Malaya. KoSASA's current president is Mr Alfred Pascual, the President of the University of the Philippines where KRI and KoSASA’s joint secretariat office also resides.

KoSASA's primary activities involve promoting Korean Studies across Southeast Asia by conducting collaborative research activities and holding academic conferences. KRI has offered UNSW scholars access to this network to facilitate multidisciplinary research collaborations between UNSW and universities across Southeast Asia and Korea. For example, UNSW Canberra signed a memorandum of understanding with all KoSASA universities to provide PhD scholarship support to qualified applicants in Engineering, Science, Business and the Humanities. In July 2015, some eight scholarships were provided to eligible students who commenced their doctoral studies at UNSW Canberra from February 2016. It's proposed to make this scholarship round an annual event.

KRI is a joint secretariat of the KoSASA network. KoSASA is operated with two institutional working systems, the Advisory Board and an Executive Committee.

The Advisory Board is made up of presidents representing nine of the leading universities in eight Southeast Asian countries, and two member universities in Korea. This Board has an annual policy meeting to guide KoSASA's direction.

Under this Board, an Executive Committee has been organised by representatives of the 11 universities (respective faculty or institute of the university in promoting Korean Studies, eg. Deans of Social Sciences or Vice Rector in International Relations or Research). This Committee delivers international cooperation among member universities within the policy guidelines given by the Board.

KRI works with these member universities at three levels, consisting of individual academics, faculty/departmental and presidential/senior executive levels.