The long and distinguished history of the Hà Nội University of Fine Art may be traced back to the colonial École supérieure des beaux arts de l’Indochine (1925-1945), which trained successive generations of Vietnamese students in the western art tradition, laying the essential groundwork for the development of a distinctive Vietnamese style of modern art. The school was taken over by the Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Việt Nam after the August Revolution of 1945, but when the struggle against the French intensified in 1950 fine art studies were moved to a Middle School of Fine Art (Trường Mỹ thuật Trung cấp), set up under artist Tô Ngọc Vân at Đại Từ near Thái Nguyên in the Việt Bắc Resistance Zone; Vân later lost his life in the war. In 1954 professors and students returned to Hà Nội where, in 1957, a new Hà Nội College of Fine Art (Trường Cao đẳng Mỹ thuật Hà Nội) was established under the direction of artist Trần Văn Cẩn. In 1981 this institution became the Hà Nội University of Fine Art. The University offers five-year Bachelor of Fine Art programmes and two-year full-time or three-year part-time Master of Arts programmes in Painting, Graphic Art and Sculpture, and four-year Bachelor of Fine Art Education programmes. The University has trained many of Việt Nam’s leading artists and each year it participates in many cultural exchanges with sister institutions overseas.

Each year a creative exchange is held between students and staff of Hà Nội University of Fine Art, Huế University of Arts and Chiang Mai University Faculty of Fine Arts in Thailand.