The department of education was founded at the same time that Yonhee University was inaugurated in 1946. But, in fact, new students have been recruited by the Department of Education since 1950. According to the revised school regulations in 1959, the Department of Education was transformed into a huge department with 240 students, who were divided into 120 students majoring in education and 120 majoring in psychology. In 1981, the Department of Education, which separated itself from the College of Liberal Arts, was combined with the Department of Physical Education. It was then transformed into the Teachers College. The name of the college, however, was changed into the College of Sciences in Education because the educational science college department belonged to the college along with the department of teaching physical education.

The Department of Education of Yonsei University places more emphasis on liberal and cultural subjects than normal education. Accordingly, it did not stop itself at developing methods or skills for nurturing teachers, but strove for teaching a broad spectrum of educational subjects including history, philosophy, society and culture and it has become a main feature of the Department of Education. Unlike other Teacher Colleges, which only concentrate on producing teachers, the Department of Education has goals of not only producing educational administrators and school teachers, but also fostering professionals in the areas of the following; education in school and curriculum, sciences for special education, social education and vocational training.

The characteristics and directions of the Department of Education can be summed up by three elements.

Firstly, the field of Korean education research, which was concentrated only in classrooms, was extended to the external areas including society, culture, history and science in education, which interprets educational phenomena in broad and various meanings.

Secondly, the Department of Education fosters a variety of professionals, who are to engage in a variety of educational fields, including educational administration, youth leadership, mass media and vocational training.

Finally, without being confined to just introducing the theories and methods of foreign countries, the Department of Education introduces the latest foreign sciences for research and development of theory of education, which are suitable to our academic situation on the basis of our historical, cultural and social traditions and their characteristics. Furthermore, it extensively researches and teaches our history, culture and society.

The Department of Education, with 50 years of tradition, has renewed the consciousness of its prestige in the Korean academic sector. In order to play a leading role in the future, not only in the academic field, but also in vocational training, it tries hard to extensively strengthen education in the field of vocational training, implement systematic cooperation between industry and academy, and cope positively with guiding the future direction and employment of its graduates.