The first-level discipline of Marxist theory was added in 2005 and belongs to the category of law. At present, there are six research directions: the basic principles of Marxism, the development history of Marxism, the study of Marxism in China, the study of Marxism abroad, ideological and political education, and the study of basic problems in modern history of China.

Marxism is a scientific world outlook and methodology, a science that reflects the nature and development law of the objective world, especially human society, and a theory about the proletariat and human liberation. Marxism should be studied not only from philosophy, political economy and scientific socialism, but also as a whole, so as to fully grasp its scientific ideological system. The discipline of Marxist theory is the first-level discipline to study Marxism as a whole. It is related to the research direction of Marxist philosophy under the first-level discipline of philosophy, the research direction of political economy under the first-level discipline of theoretical economics, scientific socialism and the international proletarian movement under the first-level discipline of political science, and the party history of China.