The foundation of the State Pedagogical Institute in Naberezhnye Chelny on 28 May, 1990 was a unique historical event in cultural educational spiritual and creative life of the young developing town of truck builders. The rapid growth of the town in 1980s required a significant number of teachers to work in different kinds of educational institutions. Being the branch of Yelabuga State Pedagogical Institute, the Naberezhnye Chelny State Pedagogical Institute trained future teachers at three faculties: pedagogical, artistic-graphic and preschool. Yu.I. Petrushin, T.N. Galiullin and his Vice-Chancellor took the lead in acquiring the status of an autonomous Institute. New faculties were introduced: philological, Maths, and later on geographic and foreign languages faculties. Thus, there were 7 faculties in 2000. The distinctive feature of Naberezhnye Chelny State Pedagogical Institute was its being the first in Tatarstan Republic to open faculties where majors were taught in native languages, and graduates worked as teachers in the countryside.
Town authorities and manufacturers of the factory “KamAZ” took an active part in improving material and equipment resources of the Institute. In 1994 the second academic building was established, new promising specialities and postgraduate programs were realized, the teaching staff increased. 4311 students studied at 11 specialities, 190 teachers including 6 Doctors and 77 PhD worked at the Institute in 2005.
In May 2011, according to the order of the Russian Federation Ministry for Education and Science the Institute was renamed as “Naberezhnye Chelny Institute of Socio-Pedagogical Technologies and Resources”. In December 2015, the Institute was granted the University status and renamed as “Naberezhnye Chelny State Pedagogical University”.