Since the establishment of the Tsinghua School (Xuetang) in 1911, courses in political science and economics were offered. In 1925, the school launched its four-year undergraduate program. The Departments of sociology, political science, economics and educational psychology were among the seventeen first founded departments in 1926. In 1928, the authorities officially changed the name to National Tsinghua University, and established fifteen departments in the School of Liberal Arts, the School of Science and the School of Law. The Department of Sociology was in the School of Liberal Arts; the Department of Psychology was in the School of Science; and the Departments of Political Science and Economics in the School of Law.

The study of social science at Tsinghua University has a long tradition of promoting interaction between Chinese and Western cultures and encouraging interdisciplinary communications between the Arts and the Sciences.