Beijing Normal University (BNU) is one of the earliest universities in China to systematically establish the discipline of Marxist theories. The Department of Political Education was established in September 1953 as the first department in the People’s Republic of China to specialize in training middle school political teachers. In 1981, BNU was among the earliest universities to be authorized to grant master’s degrees in dialectical materialism, historical materialism, political economics and the history of the CPC.  In 1986, BNU was authorized to grant doctoral degrees in the history of the CPC, and in 1998, BNU was authorized to grant doctoral degrees in Marxist theories and ideological and political education. In 2003, a center for post-doctoral studies in political science was established. In 2006, it was among the first to receive the right to grant doctoral degrees in Marxist theories as a first-class discipline. In 2012, a center for post-doctoral studies in Marxist theories was set up.

In nearly 70 years of development, a group of experts and scholars with important influence across China have emerged in the School of Marxism, Beijing Normal University, including He Xilin, Qi Zhenhai, Zhang Jingru, Zhou Zhiliang, Wu Xuguang, Zhu Zhimin, Wang Binglin and Wang Shuyin, among others. The school now has 42 faculty members, forming a team reasonably structured in terms of age, academic qualifications, and expertise. At present, there are five sub-disciplines, namely, “Basic Principles of Marxism”, “Research on the Sinicization of Marxism”, “Ideological and Political Education”, “Party Building” and “History and Theories of the Party”, forming a focused, distinctive and multi-level system for talent training, scientific research and disciplinary development. In recent years, the school has expanded its international exchanges and cooperation, having regularly facilitated teachers and students to study or conduct research as visiting scholars in well-known overseas universities, and as a result, the school has significantly become more and more internationalized.