The university was established after World War II as tertiary component of the reorganised and privatised Gakushūin School Corporation.

Although designed for Japanese students, approximately 60 classes are held in English, mainly in the Faculty of International Social Sciences.

[16] Gakushuin is the highest-ranked Japanese university in the Nature Index measurement of research output quality.

[17] Gakushuin Law School was 24th in 2009 and 25th in 2010 in Japan on the basis of the number of its successful candidates for bar examination.

[19] École des Mines de Paris ranked Gakushuin University as 92nd in the world in 2010 in terms of the number of alumni listed among CEOs in the 500 largest worldwide companies.