Formerly known as the School of Marine Geosciences, Department of Geology and Mineral Resources of Shandong University was established by Professor He Zuolin during 1946-1952. Then Department of Marine Geology and Geomorphology was formally established in the Shandong College of Oceanography in 1959, beginning official enrollment since 1960. The previous Department of Geology and Geomorphology in Shandong University was established as the Shandong College of Geology, being separated in 1962. Part of the staff, all the facilities, equipments, books and materials were moved in the Department of Marine Geology and Geomorphology. The department was renamed the Department of Marine Geology of the Shandong College of Oceanography in 1963, the Department of marine Geology of Ocean University of Qingdao in 1988, the College of Marine Geosciences of Ocean University of Qingdao in 1995, the College of Marine Geosciences in Ocean University of China in 2002, respectively.

Now the college has 74 faculties, including 2 academicians, 11 geology professors, 10 geophysics professors, 6 estuary professors, 10 associate professors. The college is subdivided into two departments and four institutes. In addition, the college at present has 144 Ph. D. students and 197 registered postgraduates.

The college closely favors a frontier of national needs and international academic development. Some new specialties for undergraduates have been respectively established in university and college, such as Marine Geology in 1960, Marine Geophysics in 1970, Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology in 1987, Tourism Economy in 1989 and Ocean Mapping and Geographic Information System in 2010.

In the history of the College, some famous Professor He Zuolin (Academician), Professor Zhou Mingzhen (Academician), Professor Qiu Jie, Professor Bai Jimei, Professor Hao Yishou, Professor Zhang Baomin, Professor Xu Shizhe (Academician) and others have been positioned here. They made important contributions to the college development. Academician Li Qingzhong from Academy of Engineering and Academician Zhang Guowei from Academy of Sciences are now honorary deans. Academicians Liu Guangding, Chen Yuntai, Wang Pinxian, Ma Zaitian, Chen Shupeng, Dai Jinxing, Ouyang Ziyuan, Jinqing Huang, Gu Xinyi and others are as an adjunct professor. The college employed more than twenty foreign visiting professors.

The college includes Department of Marine Geociences, Department of Earth Exploration and Information Technology, Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Zone, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Institute of Marine Geochemistry and Institute of Marine Geodynamics. Four undergraduate specialties are Geology (mainly focusing on Marine Geology), Exploration Technology and Engineering (mainly focusing on Marine geophysics), Earth Information Science and Technology (including Software Engineering, Ocean Mapping and Geographic Information Systems). Three specialties for Ph. D. Students are Marine Geology since 1984, Marine Geochemistry, Marine Geophysics. In addition, there isone doctoral program of Energy and Environmental protection Engineering. Some postgraduate programs include Mineralogy, Petrology, Ore Deposit Geology, Structural Geology, Quaternary Geology, Paleontology and Stratigraphy, Geochemistry, Geological Resources and Geological Engineering (including Mineral Prospecting and Exploration, Earth Exploration and Information Technology, Geological Engineering) and one training plan on Engineering Geology. Some post-doctoral staff are provided in the fields of Marine geology under the marine science disciplines. Marine Geology is a national key discipline and Earth Exploration and Information Technology is a provincial key discipline. The college has the Key Laboratory of Submarine Geosciences and Exploration Techniques, Ministry of Education and the Engineering Research Center of Marine Oil and Gas Development and Security, Ministry of Education.

After decades of discipline construction and development, the college has a priority of submarine science and technology with two academic directions of Marine Geology and Geo-information and Exploration Techniques. The research groups cover some dominant research direction such as Continental Margin Geology, Marine Geochemistry, Submarine Mineral Resources and Mineralization, Marine Sedimentary and Engineering Environment, Geo-information Processing and Exploration Technology, Deep-sea Resources Exploration, Coastal and Estuaries and Global Change. The college has hosted some national commitment to scientific and technological projects, "973" projects and "863 " programs, some special investigation to the oceans, the special Northwest Pacific investigations, comprehensive survey of China's coastal waters, the National Outstanding Young Scientists Foundation projects, some key projects from the National Natural Science Foundation projects. The college staffs have made a number of high-quality research publications. The college has won the national "Eighth Five-Year Plan" major scientific and technological achievements Award, National Science and Technology Progress Award, Chinese Academy of Science and Technology Progress Award, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources, and other provincial science and technology achievement awards. Publication includes many important books such as "Marine Geochemistry", "Marine Sedimentology", "Ocean Manganese Nodules", "Ocean Authigenic Minerals", "Modern Marine Geology", "Marine Geology", "Coastal Engineering Environment", " Quaternary Environmental Change", "Magmatism and Hydrothermal activity in Okinawa Trough ", "Marine Geomagnetism", "Coastal Dynamic Geomorphology" and other ocean-related distinctive materials and monographs.

For decades, the college has trained more than 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students, became the marine geology, marine geophysics school first, most personnel training faculties. Graduates are active in domestic and international marine department, petroleum companies, mining companies, universities, research institutes and governments. A large number of graduates have become outstanding experts with some big contributions, and some have embarked on important leadership positions, some of them became outstanding entrepreneurs.

In the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, the goals of college development are to enlarge number of staffs, to substantially increase students' innovation ability, to enhance a domestic advantage of disciplines in Marine Geology, to develop Earth Exploration and Information Technology as one of university-in advantaged disciplines, to make the overall strength and level of personnel training and scientific research as a leading level in domestics, to initially build the known and marine-featured research-type college. Specific construction tasks are to attract a first-class scholars to establish some teaching groups and research groups, and to invest 10 million RMB Yuan to strengthen undergraduate teaching facilities, to get research funding over 100 million RMB Yuan, to invest a total assets of 100 million RMB Yuan for research and teaching equipments. It will be looking forward to being an creative and training base on Submarine Science and Exploration Technology.