NOCIES has its roots in a 1990 Comparative Education Society in Europe conference in Madrid, where a group of Nordic scholars met and decided to create a local society. By 1992, they had arranged a founding general assembly and a Nordic comparative conference, at which an official name and constitution were developed. 

NOCIES was a member of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies from 1994 to 2016. Our society continues to connect with several other bodies within the field, such as Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE), Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), and GlobalCIE Forum. 

In May 2007, NOCIES adopted a new definition of comparative and international education to meet the challenge of the reorganisation of higher education in the Nordic countries. The new definition is that comparative education is 1) inclusive: international education includes comparative studies, education abroad and development education; 2) it is an academic and critical discipline with specific research methodologies; and 3) it is a teaching discipline at institutions of higher education.

From 2017 the Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education has been operational, being the only journal in the Nordic countries within the field of comparative and international education. This Open Access  journal is closely connected to NOCIES and publish scholarly work in all Nordic languages in addition to English.