Arcada was established in 1996 as a merger of the Swedish Institute of Health Care Education (Sjukis), the Swedish Institute of Commercial Education (Lilla Hanken), the Institute of Technology (Verket) and the Folkhälsan Institute of Social Education.
The organization was founded in 1921 by Ossian Schauman and a number of other doctors who wanted to reduce child mortality and cases of tuberculosis in Finland.