Qian Xuesen Honors College was established in 2016 and is named after Qian Xuesen, an outstanding alumnus of Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU). The college gathers qualified educational resources and uses Qian's theory of meta-synthetic wisdom to cultivate innovative talents. It plays a leading role in educational reform.

XJTU has always pushed forward the reform of training top-notch innovative talents. The university began recruiting students of the first Youth Honored Program in 1985. It built an experimental class (Qian Xuesen class) to cultivate engineering talents and an experimental medical class named after Hou Zonglian, an outstanding Chinese medical expert, in 2007.

XJTU's majors of Mathematics and Physics were selected for the Everest Program in 2009 and the university launched experimental classes in both majors in the same year. The Everest Program was initiated by the Ministry of Education to cultivate top-notch students in foundation academics.

The university launched another two experimental classes in Chemical Biology and Computer Sciences in 2016. In 2018, it created an Artificial Intelligence (AI) experimental class and the Elite Program, which is designed to cultivate talents funded by two outstanding alumni of XJTU.

XJTU set up a new major and an experimental class in Energy Science and Engineering in 2020. Its majors for Mathematics, Physics, Computer Sciences, Mechanics and Preclinical Medicine were selected for the "Everest Program 2.0" in 2021.

The college adheres to its motto of "patriotism, dedication, truth, innovation," aiming to train industry leaders with a global vision and scientific literacy. Its functions include education reform and research, teaching, international exchanges and student affairs. The management of the "Elite Program" is also overseen by the college.

In recent years, the college has focused on training reform, forming a talent-training system that concentrates on elementary courses, scientific research, personality cultivation and global vision.

The college considers students’ comprehensive growth as the starting point of all of its work. It has innovated the educational system and established a dual-school training system coordinating both the college and the academy. It has also set up a second classroom with student apartments in the community, so as to promote their coordinated development.