The College of Education started as unit of the College of Liberal Arts in 1913. On March 8, 1918, the UP Board of Regents authorized the reorganization of the School of Education into a College of Education effective July 1, 1918. The College transferred from Ermita to the Diliman Campus in January 1949. In the 1970s, the College laboratory schools – the UP Elementary School and the UP High School were merged into the UP Integrated School. In 1983, the UP Science Education Center, now known as UP National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development, a research and development unit, was attached to the College.
The College is now the only Southeast Asian college offering a doctorate in reading education and the only Philippine institution offering a doctorate in special education.