When General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected Nankai University, he flipped through the Three Advances teaching guidance plan for the ideological and political courses led by our school。

In the early days after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Nankai University set up the “Marxism-Leninism Department of Basic Theory Teaching”, which it was mainly responsible for educating students systematically of Marxist theory. Nankai University was renowned as one of the earliest universities to establish a school of Marxism, and it was selected as the first batch of national key Marxist school in 2016.

The school consists of 8 teaching institutions, 3 research departments. It has established a number of important teaching and research platforms National and provincial support, such as a national-level key research base for teaching material construction---which mainly studies the construction of the textbook, An introduction to the basic principles of Marxism, used in ideological and political theory course in universities, a national training base for teachers of Ideological and Political Theory Courses, and a research alliance for Xi Jinping’s Thought of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Cooperating with various platforms, like the 21st century institute of Marxism, the research center for Inner-Party Laws and Regulations of Nankai University, Xi Jinping’s Thought of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the school makes great efforts to develop the cluster of discipline of Marxist theory. In 2020, our school was approval for the Journal of Teaching and research of Marxist Theory. 

Our discipline construction has always been in the forefront of the country. In 1983, it enrolled postgraduate students majoring in the history of the Communist Party of China and other related disciplines. In 2003，it was approval for granting doctoral degree of Marxist theory and ideological- Political Education. In 2006, it was awarded the first-level disciplines of doctoral degrees in Marxist theory, and has established a complete discipline system, including all 7 secondary-level disciplines of Marxist theory and two secondary-level disciplines of political science, scientific socialism and international communist movement, and history of the CPC, as well as a postdoctoral workstation of Marxist theory. Meanwhile, there is a mobile post-doctoral workstation on Marxist theory. We have set up two undergraduate majors in ideological and political education and Marxist theory, both of which have been selected as national-level first-class undergraduate majors. The school is equipped with integrated Talent cultivation system of Marxist theory throughout the undergraduate, master and doctor doctoral stage. And it continually improve the institutional mechanism for high-quality talent training by exploring the Integration training program of  Undergraduate, Postgraduate  and  Doctoral  Students. 

New breakthroughs have been made in the reform and innovation of Ideological and Political Courses. In January 2019, when president Xi Jinping visited Nankai University, he personally looked over the teaching guidance program (prepared) compiled by our school, “Xi Jinping’s Thought of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in a New Era ‘Three Advances’” .In December 2019, a on-site promotion meeting, advocated by the Ministry of Education to deepen the reform and innovation of the political theory course in the new era, was held in our school. Sun Chunlan, the vice premier and member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attended it and listened to the teaching demonstration made by our teachers and students. The education model of the Ideological and Political Course, “Studying together, researching together, lecturing together, and moving forward together between teachers and students”, has already received universal recognition in our society. And many influential social media, like CCTV News, Focus Interview, and Guangming Daily, reported such education model. The two courses, “Outline of Modern Chinese History” and “Introduction to the Basic Principles of Marxism”, were selected as the first batch of “national high-quality resource sharing courses” by the Ministry of Education. Four Ideological and Political Courses were registered on the MOOC platform of universities. “Ideological and Moral Cultivation and Legal Foundation” was selected as the first batch of national first-level undergraduate courses in 2020. It has undertaken the National Open Class Exhibition of Ideological and Political courses for college students for several times, which was hosted by the Steering Committee of ideological and political course of the Ministry of Education.

The school attaches great significance to the international communication to broaden the horizons of teachers and students. A several of teachers and students have been sent to internationally renowned universities to learn and promote the cross-cultural communication, like the University of Chicago, the University of Pittsburgh. Besides, we invited scholars from different universities to give lecture, including Oxford University in UK, Soka University and Takushoku University in Japan. Meanwhile, we encourage teachers and students to carry out close academic exchange activities with Soka University in Japan and Hanlin Institute of Social Sciences in Vietnam.

Based on the philosophy of Nankai University, The School of Marxism insists on the policy of “Opening up for the construction of School of Marxism”. To realize the high-quality development, we constantly not only promote the construction of disciplines and teaching reform, but also enhance the quality of faculty and personnel training. All we do is to accelerate the new development of Marxist theoretical discipline in China.