| Year | Month | Event |
| 1970 | February | Hiroshima University established the “University Issues Research Center.” |
| 1972 | May | The center was officially recognized under its present name, Research Institute for Higher Education (RIHE). It was the first specialized research institute for Higher Education in Japan. |
| 1986 | April | RIHE launched a postgraduate training program in higher education, which became part of the Graduate School of Social Sciences of Hiroshima University. |
| 1995 | April | RIHE moved from Higashi-senda Campus (Hiroshima City) to Higashi-Hiroshima Campus (Higashi-Hiroshima City). |
| 2000 | April | Postgraduate training program became part of the Graduate School of Education at Hiroshima University, and a new Higher Education Course was established at the Graduate School. The research organization at RIHE was expanded and divided into five divisions: International Higher Education; Curriculum Development; System of Higher Education; Admission, and Research Visitors. |
| 2002– 2007 | RIHE was identified by the Japanese government as a national center of excellence and was designated as one of twenty such Centers in the Humanities. It is the only Center in Higher Education to be given this status. Special grants to RIHE will allow an extensive program of research into policies and programs for 21st century higher education. | |
| 2005 | April | Bilateral Agreements was concluded between RIHE and Center for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE), The University of Melbourne, Australia. |
| 2006 | October | Bilateral Agreements was concluded between RIHE and the Graduate School of Education, Peking University, China. |
| 2008– 2012 | RIHE began operating a project under the title “Strategic Research Project on University Reform” to respond to the knowledge-based society in the 21st Century which was approved by and received a grant from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT). | |
| 2010– 2012 | RIHE was funded by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) for Young Researcher Overseas Visits Program for Vitalizing Brain Circulation. | |
| 2016– 2021 | MEXT provides preliminarily funds for the program of cooperation research base. |