The School of Marxism, established in 2005, is a national key school of its kind in China and the first of its kind in Tianjin. It was jointly built by the university and the Publicity Department of the Tianjin Committee of the Communist Party of China. It boasts several platforms, including a university course collective preparation center, the TNU Base of the Chinese Socialist Theoretical System Research Center, the Tianjin Institute of Ideology and Politics for the New Era, the Tianjin Social Science Laboratory, Tianjin Higher Education Think Tank, and the Tianjin Contemporary Chinese Marxism Research Association.

The school has seven teaching and research offices specializing in the Basic Principles of Marxism; an Introduction to Mao Zedong Thought and the Theory of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics; and an Outline of Modern Chinese History, Ideology, Morality, and Legal Education. Additionally, there is a Marxism theory book and information center covering an area of more than 800 square meters.

The school has a top-ranked doctoral program in Marxist theory, which is also a postdoctoral research station. This discipline is among Tianjin's key, first-class, and top-level programs. The school has nationally-recognized teaching teams in ideological and political theory courses, with four young and middle-aged teachers having been selected for the excellent young teachers support program of the Ministry of Education. The college offers two undergraduate majors: Ideology and Morality Education and Marxist Theory Education. The former major has been approved as part of the first batch of national-level first-class undergraduate professional construction sites and is a featured major of the Ministry of Education and a brand major of Tianjin.