The university consists of undergraduate departments in humanities and social sciences and a graduate school, and specializes in Japanese literature, history, and Shinto Studies.

In government-published materials and several unaffilated private publications, shinjitai characters are used instead to write as "国学院大学".

Academy of National Studies) that offered courses in literature, history, and Japanese law.

After the end of the Second World War, the Kōten Kōkyūsho was dissolved in 1946, and the university itself was reorganised in 1948 with the single Faculty of Letters, comprising departments of Shinto, History, Literature, and Philosophy.

The educational institutions in Tochigi Prefecture listed below operate independently of Kokugakuin University, and exist under a separate incorporated legal entity.