Government Arts College, Kota was earlier a part of Government College, Kota and shares the same history. The College was established on 25th March 1909 in the form of Herbert High School. Under the dynamic leadership and initiative of His Highness Ummed Singh Ji II, the Herbert School building was and is still an architectural marvel. The then British political agent to kota Colonel Charles Herbert laid the foundation stone of the school.
The building has a central clock tower with four faces and the clock resounds regularly even today. The magnificent building was completed in the year 1920 though teaching commenced from 1912 under the headmastership of Lala Daya Krishna.
In 1936, Herbert School was upgraded to Inter College and in 1947 the college was fully promoted into a degree college under the affiliation of Agra University. Later in 1947 P.G. classes commenced in Arts and P.G. classes in Science began in 1955 and got affiliation from Rajputana University which after independence came to be known as Rajasthan University. In 1955 the college was renamed as Government College, Kota. In July 2016, Government Arts College was reorganised as an independent institution.