人大前身係中國共產黨抗日戰爭時期喺延安創辦嘅陝北公學，以及後來嘅華北聯合大學同華北大學。1950年10月3號，以華北大學為基礎合併組建嘅中國人民大學正式開學。1954年，教育部發佈《關於重點高等學校和專家工作範圍的決議》，指定人大同北京大學、北京醫科大學、清華大學、中國農業大學、哈爾濱工業大學6間學校做「全國性重點大學」，係中華人民共和國最早一批重點大學。
The predecessor of the National People's Congress was the Northern Shaanxi Public School, which was founded in Yan'an during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression by the Communist Party of China, and later the North China United University and North China University. On October 3, 1950, the Chinese People's University was officially opened by merging with North China University. In 1954, the Ministry of Education issued the "Resolution on the Scope of Work of Key Institutions of Higher Education and Experts", designating the National People's Congress, Peking University, Beijing Medical University, Tsinghua University, China Agricultural University, and Harbin Institute of Technology as "national key universities", which are the earliest batch of key universities in the People's Republic of China.