Tianjin University, known as Peiyang University in its early days, was founded in 1895, with a motto of seek truth from facts. It was the first institution of higher learning in the history of modern Chinese education.

Peiyang University changed its name to Tianjin University in 1951 after the Hebei Institute of Technology merged into it. During a nationwide restructuring of institutes of higher education initiated in 1952, Tianjin University became the largest multidisciplinary industrial university. It was named as one of the key national universities in 1959. The university passed the preliminary examination of Project 211 and was listed as one of the universities with key investment.

The well-staffed university is nestled on a green and afforested beautiful campus with an area of 137 hectares and 780,000 square meters of floor buildings. The two university libraries have 26,000 square meters of floor space and a collection of 1.74 million volumes of books.

The university has a strong contingent of faculty members. Of its 1,800 teaching staff members, 1,200 are professors and associate professors. There are 11 schools, more than 30 specialties for undergraduates, 74 programs for master's degree students, 37 programs for doctoral degree students and 8 postdoctoral research programs. Of the 16,000 students, 2,500 are master's and doctoral students.