Nankai University is located in Tianjin, People's Republic of China. It was co-founded by prominent modern Chinese educators Yan Xiu and Zhang Boling, originating from the establishment of Nankai School in 1904. In 1919, the university division of Nankai School was formally established.
On September 25, 1919, the university division of Nankai School held its first opening ceremony, marking the official establishment of Private Nankai University. In 1921, the university division of Nankai School was officially renamed "Tianjin Private Nankai University". In 1929, Nankai University restructured its departments into colleges, establishing the College of Liberal Arts, College of Science, College of Commerce, and Medical Preparatory Department, with a total of 13 departments. At the beginning of the full-scale outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Nankai University became a bombing target, and its campus was almost completely destroyed by fire. On September 10, 1937, the Ministry of Education of the National Government announced the formation of Changsha Temporary University using the faculty and equipment of Peking University, Tsinghua University, Nankai University, and the Central Academy as the backbone. On April 2, 1938, the Executive Yuan ordered that Changsha Temporary University, relocated to Kunming, be renamed "National Southwestern Associated University". In 1939, the Nankai Institute of Economics was re-established at the Nankai High School campus in Shapingba, Chongqing.
On May 4, 1946, National Southwestern Associated University was officially disbanded, and Nankai University was transformed from a "private" to a "national" university. Departments and faculties of Nankai University gradually returned to the old site in Balitai, Tianjin, to resume operations. On October 17, 1946, Nankai University held a ceremony at Balitai to commemorate the reopening, which was designated as Nankai's anniversary day. After the reopening, National Nankai University established the College of Liberal Arts, College of Science, College of Political and Economic Sciences, and College of Engineering, with a total of 16 departments, as well as the Nankai Institute of Economics, the Nankai Institute of Applied Chemistry, and the Nankai Institute of Frontier Humanities.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Nankai University continued as a public institution. During the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, the normal educational order of Nankai University was disrupted, and most teachers were persecuted. Between 1966 and 1971, the university did not admit any students for five years. On February 17, 1978, the State Council forwarded the Ministry of Education's report on the restoration and improvement of key national universities, designating Nankai University as one of the first batch of national key universities. In 1994, Tianjin Institute of Foreign Trade merged into Nankai University. In 1995, Nankai University was selected as one of the first universities in China to be included in the "Project 211". On December 25, 2000, it was included in "Project 985". In September 2017, Nankai University was selected as a "world-class university construction university".