Capital Normal University was founded in 1954. Its history can be traced back to Tongzhou Prefecture Teachers’ school established in 1905. It is a national “Double First-Class” university and it's a “province-ministry joint venture” by Beijing and the Ministry of Education. The school's current disciplines and majors cover philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, management,  art, etc. Over the past 70 years, the university has trained more than 200,000 senior specialists of various types and is an important base for talent cultivation in Beijing.

The university currently has 17 Doctoral Degree-authorized first level disciplines, 15 Postdoctoral Programs 24 Master’s Degree-authorized first-level disciplines, 3 doctoral professional degree categories, 20 master's professional degree categories, 19 independently-established secondary discipline degree-granting points outside the catalogue, and 9 independently-established interdisciplinary degree-granting points. There are 4 national key disciplines, 1 national key discipline, 8 first-level key disciplines in Beijing, 12 second-level key disciplines in Beijing, 2 first-level key construction disciplines in Beijing, 13 second-level key construction disciplines in Beijing, 4 first-level key cultivation disciplines in Beijing, and 2 interdisciplinary key disciplines in Beijing; 1 Beijing National Center for Applied Mathematics, 1 provincial and ministerial co-construction national key laboratory cultivation base, 3 key laboratories of the Ministry of Education, 1 key research base for humanities and social sciences of provincial universities under the Ministry of Education, 1 engineering research center of the Ministry of Education, 1 key laboratory of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, 1 national experimental teaching demonstration center, 1 national virtual simulation experimental teaching center, 1 national virtual simulation experimental teaching project, 1 Beijing municipal virtual simulation experimental teaching project, 1 national & international science and technology cooperation base, 1 National Language Commission research base, 1 pilot university for national intellectual property, 1 scientific and technological achievement transformation and technology transfer base of universities of Ministry of Education, 1 high-end innovation center of Beijing university, 1 Beijing laboratory, 11 Beijing key laboratories, 1 Beijing scientific and technological achievement transformation platform, 1 pilot unit of Beijing intellectual property, 1 ZGC technology transfer platform, 2 centers for engineering research of Beijing university, 1 center for engineering research of Beijing, 1 Beijing engineering laboratory, 1 collaborative innovation research base for Beijing social science and natural science, 4 off-campus talent training bases for Beijing municipal university, 7 demonstration centers for Beijing experimental teaching, and 48 provincial and ministerial research (academy, institutes, centers) and laboratories.