The education of foreign students in Henan University has a long history. 19 12 years, the predecessor of Henan University, Henan Preparatory School for Studying in Europe and America, was born in the former site of Gong Yuan in the Qing Dynasty in the ancient city of Kaifeng. Together with Tsinghua University (now Tsinghua University) in Beijing and Nanyang College (now Shanghai Jiaotong University) in Shanghai, it became the three major training bases for studying abroad in China at that time, and reserved talents for receiving advanced western education abroad.

Based on the solid foundation handed down from generation to generation, the education of foreign students in Henan University really started at 1985, and it is the earliest school in Henan Province to recruit foreign students.

In order to adapt to the new situation of economic globalization, internationalization of higher education and China's entry into WTO, Henan University has taken a solid step of internationalization reform in the new period. In order to further standardize the teaching and management of international students and enhance the international influence of the university, on the basis of expanding the scale of international students and improving the level of running schools, Henan University issued a document on March 4, 2002 to set up the first comprehensive "International Education Center" in Henan universities, which mainly undertakes the training of foreign students and domestic students who will go abroad for further study, and has become a symbol of the internationalization of Henan University.

One year later, on August 29th, 2003, the center was changed to a college, and the School of International Education of Henan University was formally established. The Institute of International Education aims at the school-running philosophy of Henan University, which is "Mingde Xinmin, stop at perfection". On the basis of inheriting history, conform to the development trend of the times, face the world and face the future.