Founded in July, 2015, the School of Marxism is an independent branch of Inner Mongolia University(IMU) which carries out the teaching, research, publicity and talent cultivation in Marxist theory. In 1957 when IMU was established, the independent Teaching and Research Section for Marxism and Leninism was set up. In 1994, it was approved to offer the master’s degree program of “Marxist Theory and Ideological and Political Education”-the first one in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region(IMAR). In 2002, it merged with the major of Administrative Management of then Department of Philosophy of IMU to form the School of Public Administration. In 2006, it was approved to offer the doctor’s degree program of the sub-discipline of “Basic Principles of Marxism” and the master’s degree program of the discipline of Marxist Theory. In 2008, the discipline of “Basic Principles of Marxism” was selected as the regional-level key discipline. In 2015, the School of Marxism was established, which started the rapid development of the school. In 2017, the school was chosen as one of the first batch of regional-level key Schools of Marxism. In 2019, the school was selected by the Ministry of Education(MOE) as one of the leading schools of the Program of One Policy for One Province in Ideological and Political Courses. In 2021, the school was approved to offer the doctor’s degree program of the discipline of Marxist Theory. In 2022, it began to offer bachelor’s degree program of Marxist Theory. In 2023, the discipline of Marxist Theory was selected as one of the regional-level first-class top-notch development disciplines under “Double First-Class” Initiative.

Currently, the school has 8 teaching and research sections of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Forging a Strong Sense of the Community for the Chinese Nation, Basic Principles of Marxism, Sinicization of Marxism, Ideological and Political Education, Essentials of Modern History of China, Current Situations and Policies and Ideological and Political Courses for Postgraduates, and 1 Practice and Innovation Center for Ideological and Political Courses. The school is the leader of IMAR Practice and Innovation Program for Ideological and Political Courses under the MOE Program for “One Policy for One Province in Ideological and Political Courses”. It has 2 key research bases for humanities and social sciences of universities in IMAR including the Research Center for Sinicization of Marxism and National Development and IMAR Center for Clean Governance and 3 regional level research and teaching centers including the Research Center for Marxist Theory Education at Universities in IMAR, Center for Materials and Information of Ideological and Political Courses and Center for Training and Further Studies of Teachers of Ideological and Political Courses.

The faculty of the school is politically and professionally strong and well-structured. The school has 76 full-time teachers including 22 professors accounting for 29% of all the teachers, 24 associate professors, 32% of the total, 59 teachers with doctor’s degree, 78% of the total, 12 PhD student supervisors, and 17 master student supervisors. The school has 1 member with the honorary title of National Outstanding Party Worker, 2 with the title of Regional Outstanding Party Worker in the Education Community, 1 with the title of “Nationally Influential Model for Teachers of Ideological and Political Course at Universities”, 1 entitled Expert who enjoys the special allowance of the State Council, 1 with the MOE Program for “Talents in the New Century” , 1 with the National Program for the Support of Outstanding Middle-Aged and Young University Teachers of Ideological and Political Courses of MOE, 1 MOE-level Demonstrative Excellent Teaching and Research Team. The school also has 2 faculty members with the title of Regional Middle-Aged and Young Experts with Outstanding Contributions, 5 with “Grassland Talent” Program, 1 who is the chairman of the Advisory Committee on Ideological and Political Courses of Universities in IMAR, 2 who are chairs of the sub-committees on ideological and political courses of universities in IMAR, 3 regional-level Master Teachers’ Studios for Ideological and Political Work at Universities, 1 with the title of Excellent Worker in Education Community in IMAR and 2 with the title of Model Teacher for “Morality Forging and Soul Shaping” in a New Era.

The School of Marxism is mainly responsible for teaching the courses of ideological and political theory to all the undergraduates and postgraduates at IMU, developing the discipline of Marxism Theory, undertaking the scientific research in the discipline of Marxist Theory and cultivating postgraduates. At the same time, the school undertakes the social services in publicity and popularization of Marxism, particularly Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and the consultancy of policy-making for the development of economy and society in IMAR. The ideological and political theory courses offered by the school to the undergraduate students of the university are all major courses of IMU, of which “An Introduction to Mao Zedong Thought and Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” is the regional-level Excellent Course, “Basic Principles of Marxism” regional-level Online-Offline Integrated First-Class Course and “Essentials of Chinese Modern History” regional-level Offline First-Class Course.

The School of Marxism has been putting emphasis on cultivating talents through moral education and attaching equal importance to theory and practice. It has graduated 147 PhD students and 530 master students whose employment rate is 99%. The graduates from this school have developed the appropriate outlook on career and employment. They have actively responded to the call of the country to work where they are urgently needed. 80% of them are working in the western border areas of China and engaging themselves in education and teaching of Marxist Theory, theoretical research, party building and administration. And one third of them have become the backbone forces on ideology front and in publicity of theories of the Communist Party of China and policy research.

In the future, the School of Marxism will focus on the mission of its disciplines, closely center on the strategic target of IMU to build up “a high-level and research-oriented university with distinctive characteristics”, reinforce and perfect its existing achievements and forge ahead with determination in order to make more progress in cultivating high-level talents for Marxist Theory, boosting theoretical research, strengthening theoretical education and deepening the theoretical publicity and popularization.