China Academy of Corporate Governance of Nankai University was jointly founded by Nankai University and the National Audit Office of the People's Republic of China. In 2004, China Academy of Corporate Governance of Nankai University was nominated by the Ministry of Education as one of the 100 Key Research Institutes of Humanities and Social Sciences in China's higher education sector. It is the first research institute in China's universities to specialize in studies of corporate governance.

China Academy of Corporate Governance of Nankai University began to offer master's and doctoral degrees in Corporate Governance as an independent specialty in 2004, completing its list of programs for all educational levels ranging from undergraduate, graduate, to doctoral and postdoctoral. It has been awarded the second National Teaching Prize and the first Tianjin Teaching Prize. Over the years, it has trained hundreds of high-quality doctoral and master students, more than 40 postdoctoral researchers, and a group of high-rank corporate governance professionals. No fewer than 10 of its graduates have become leading scholars in corporate governance at different universities and research institutes.

After more than a decade's theoretical and practical research, in 2001 China Academy of Corporate Governance of Nankai University developed East Asia Corporate Governance Principles and China's Corporate Governance Principles, the former being adopted and issued by PECC, and the latter by China Securities Regulatory Commissionand the State Economic and Trade Commission. The Academy also introduced China's Listed Companies Governance Evaluation Indicator System in 2003, and has released five issues of the China Corporate Governance Evaluation Report. Moreover, It has won such academic awards as Sun Yefang Economics Prize, Excellent Literature Prize of the 2nd Jiang Yiwei Enterprise Reform and Development Foundation, and Social Science Awards of Tianjin City. Its research result has been cited in China Central Television's programthe Most Valuable Listed Companies in China.

China Academy of Corporate Governance of Nankai University has received funds from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and The Ministry of Education for over 40 key research projects and has published over 30 books and more than 1200 scholarly papers.