[1] The university has trained many of Vietnam’s leading artists and each year it participates in many cultural exchanges with sister institutions overseas.
[2][3] The École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine was managed by the French academic and painter, Victor Tardieu .
[5] Teachers included Joseph Inguimberty,[8] and Alix Aymé, wife of the deputy commander of the French forces.
When the struggle against the French intensified in 1950, the college was moved to Đại Từ, Thai Nguyen in the Viet Bac Resistance Zone, under the direction of painter Tô Ngọc Vân.
Nguyễn Đỗ Cung, a student at the École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine from 1929–1934, founded the Museum of Fine Arts in 1963.