The College of Humanities and Social Sciences was founded in 2001 as one of the 22 colleges of Yunnan Agricultural University. Its predecessor was the Marxism-Leninism Teaching and Research Department of Yunnan Agricultural University, which was established in 1977. In 1991, the Department of Moral Education was merged into the Department of Marxism-Leninism to form the Department of Social Sciences. In 1993, it was renamed the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and began to recruit students majoring in liberal arts. In 2001, in order to adapt to the development of the university's teaching, the school of Humanities and Social Sciences was formally established.

The college consists of five teaching departments: Secretarial Department, Social Work Department, Tourism Management Department, Public Service Management Department and Hotel Management Department. There are two university-level public courses teaching and research departments: Chinese excellent traditional culture education and Aesthetic education and art education. It has 2 master's programs in social work and Agriculture (rural Development). There are 5 undergraduate majors in secretarial science, social work, Public Service Management, tourism management and hotel management. At present, the university has 1132 full-time undergraduates, 50 full-time postgraduates and 49 part-time postgraduates. The college has 46 full-time teachers, including 9 professors and associate professors. Among the teachers, 36 have a master's degree or above and 13 have a doctor's degree. At present, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences also undertakes the teaching task of public courses of humanities and social sciences.

After many years of schooling, several generations of careful construction, all the staff efforts, in various fields for the society to cultivate more than 2000 outstanding talents. The school has initially formed a multi-disciplinary coordinated development of liberal arts, management, law and agriculture, and multi-level talent training pattern of undergraduate, master of science and professional master.