The Department of Economic Theory was established as a part of the then Kazan Institute of Finance and Economics and was called the Department of Political Economy. Over the years it has made a significant contribution to the development of the Institute in all areas: teaching, research and educational.

Some of the prominent educators in the history of this department are corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences D.I. Rosenberg, Professor G.I. Bondarev, Professor Khmelnytsky E.L, Professor Kurshakov A.D., associate professors, who headed the department in 1930s-1950s. - Sachs I.I., Shamsutdinov H.S, Tahomirov I.D., Bunin L.F; Such famous political economists as Lyushin S.A., Gimadeeva F.A., Large V.I., Andreev S.I, Malgin V.S., Gilyazov K.A., Zakirova M.T., Brajnikov N.Z., Kondratiev A.S., Ellert A.A., Khairullina K.M., Safiullin K.G., Gorchakov D.E, Teplov Y.S., Habibullin S.H., Sidrakova M.M., Kurchakov R.S. 

The taught courses include Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics (advanced level), Microeconomics (advanced level), Industrial Economics, Business Negotiations, etc. The students are given all the necessary materials: curricula for lectures, seminars, individual sessions, study guides for students assessment and self-study control. The rating system is used for continuous student assessment.

The Department maintains contacts with leading universities of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tatarstan. In addition, students are deeply involved in scientific research, scientific conferences for students are regularly hold by the Department. Postgraduate students as well as doctoral students of the Department regularly defend their theses.