The history of the Faculty of Education started in the academic year of 1949/1950 when a branch of the Faculty of Education of Slovak University in Bratislava was established in Banská Bystrica. The first university in Banská Bystrica, the so-called Higher School of Education, was established in 1954. On September 1, 1964, the Faculty of Education was established. In July 1992 the Faculty became a part of Matej Bel University, and a new chapter of its history was started. The mission of the Faculty is to prepare new professionals in occupations focused on work with people, i.e. educational and social professions, as well as to develop their scientific knowledge. The process of education at the Faculty is realised by nine departments that employ 119 university teachers.
The Faculty of Education provides instruction in accredited programmes at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd levels of university studies. The main condition for studying at the Faculty is successful passing of the secondary-school leaving examination and the university entrance exam. The entrance exam is usually administered in a written form. Some specialized fields of study require passing a special practical exam.
The scientific and research activities of the Faculty are focused on basic as well as applied research in the field education theory of individual subjects, pedagogy, psychology, social work, art, and Evangelical theology. Members of the pedagogical staff are involved in the VEGA, KEGA and APVV research projects. They publish their research findings in national and foreign magazines and they attend national and international scientific and professional conferences. The Faculty is also involved in grant projects carried out in cooperation with partner universities in Slovakia and abroad as well as in grant projects of the European Social Fund. It regularly organizes international scientific conferences. As for its publishing activities, members of the Faculty present their research findings in several journals - Acta Universitatis Matthaiae Belii - Pedagogická fakulta, journals presenting the findings of grant projects, and the journals of individual departments. The Faculty also publishes scientific monographs and university textbooks, some of which in cooperation with foreign universities. The Faculty of Education at Matej Bel University, the Faculty of Education at Ostrava University and the University of Silesia in Katowice publish an international scientific magazine called The New Educational Review (listed in Thomson Reuters Master Journal List). It is a quarterly magazine that serves as a platform for the teachers at the Faculty of Education to present their research findings. After the restructuring of the teaching faculties at Matej Bel University, the Faculty of Education can now develop artistic activities to a greater extent in the field of music (especially community singing), as well as in the field of visual art that members of the Faculty present at various exhibitions. Students also participate in the Faculty's scientific and research activities by means of their own research and art projects.

The Faculty and its Departments cooperate with related foreign institutions providing university education in the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Hungary, the UK, Belgium, Switzerland, the USA, the Netherlands, and Serbia. Teachers regularly attend international conferences and are members of international organizations. The Faculty develops international cooperation within the framework of the Bologna Declaration and supports international exchange programs of students and teachers. It cooperates with international partners especially within the framework of ERASMUS. The contract partners of the Faculty are university institutions in the cities Esztergom, Krakow, Prague, Opole, Szarvas, Bydgoszcz, Eger, Lublin, Novi Sad, Olomouc, Ústí nad Labem and Ostrava. Their cooperation is based on specific needs of the Faculty and its Departments and on the contracts within the framework of international projects.