Yunnan Minzu University

Yunnan Minzu University is a comprehensive university that trains advanced professionals of all ethnic groups. It is a provincial key university jointly built by the Ministry of Education, the State Ethnic Affairs Commission and the people 's government of Yunnan Province. The university is located in Kunming, China, a city with a spring-like climate all year round and beautiful scenery. Its predecessor was Yunnan Minzu College, which was founded on August 1, 1951, and was one of the earliest ethnic higher education institutions established in the People's Republic of China. It was renamed Yunnan Minzu University in April 2003.

After more than 60 years of construction and development, it has become a comprehensive university with a complete range of disciplines and distinctive educational features. It covers 10 disciplines including philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, management, and art. It has formed a disciplinary and professional pattern with strengths and characteristics in ethnology, sociology, history, ethnic languages and literatures, Southeast Asian and South Asian languages and cultures, ethnic medicine, ethnic arts, ethnic sports, etc., with equal emphasis on liberal arts and science and coordinated development of multiple disciplines. It has 1 postdoctoral research station, 2 first-level discipline doctoral programs, 1 joint doctoral program, 12 first-level discipline master's programs, 96 second-level discipline master's programs, 9 professional master's programs and 94 undergraduate programs. There are 14 provincial key and advantageous disciplines, 8 national characteristic specialties, and 25 provincial advantageous specialties.

The school currently has 37,140 students of all kinds, including 21,760 undergraduates, 2,343 postgraduates, 26 doctoral students, 510 international students, and 12,148 adult undergraduate and junior college students. There are 1,566 faculty members, including 189 professors and 347 associate professors. The school covers an area of 2,550 mu and has a building area of 750,000 square meters. There are 26 colleges (departments) and Yunnan Minzu University Affiliated High School and Yunnan Minzu University Affiliated Primary School. It has one provincial research institution - Yunnan Institute of Ethnic Studies, and one ethnic museum with nearly 20,000 items in its collection; A number of distinctive and influential research institutions have been formed: "Institute of Ethnic Unity and Progress", "Institute of South and Southeast Asian Radiation Center", "Institute of Poverty Alleviation and Development and Poverty Alleviation Big Data Center", "Yunnan Tibetology Research Center"; Six academicians and experts' workstations; One provincial collaborative innovation center - "Yunnan Province 2011 Collaborative Innovation Center for Theory and Practice of Ethnic Unity and Progress". The university focuses on scientific research and has achieved remarkable results in the fields of ethnology, sociology, history, etc. It has won many national awards for outstanding teaching and research achievements and provincial awards for teaching and research achievements. Some of its research achievements have been copied by the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee for study and reference. In particular, many outstanding theoretical achievements such as "Direct Transition", "Peaceful Reform", "Five Series on Ethnic Issues", "Dictionary of Chinese History - Ethnic Volume", and "General History of Chinese Culture - Volume III" have not only provided important basis for the Party and the state to formulate ethnic policies and solve ethnic problems, but also made significant historical contributions to the enrichment and development of ethnic theory.

The school attaches great importance to international cooperation and exchanges. Since its establishment, more than 20,000 heads of state, dignitaries, experts, scholars and international friends from over 80 countries and regions have visited the school. The university has been visited by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Dr. Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State of the United States, King Harald V of Norway, and President Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam, making it one of the most favored universities in China by foreign dignitaries. The university was one of the first in Yunnan to admit foreign students and teach Chinese as a foreign language. It began to admit foreign students in 1981 and foreign master's students in 1992. It has established cooperative and exchange relations with over 70 universities or academic institutions in more than 10 countries, including the United States, Norway, Japan and South Korea.

The school has always adhered to the educational spirit of "unity and progress", and has taken it as its responsibility to be based in the border areas, serve the border areas, and contribute to the prosperity and development of ethnic unity. It has cultivated and sent more than 100,000 senior talents to society. Most of the first generation of bachelors, masters, doctors, experts and scholars among the 25 indigenous ethnic minorities in Yunnan were trained and produced by this school. Most of the ethnic cadres in 129 counties of 16 prefectures and cities, especially in 29 ethnic autonomous counties, graduated from the university. The school has become a cradle for cultivating high-level and high-quality talents for all ethnic groups in China, especially in Southwest China, an important base for studying ethnic issues and ethnic relations, and an important window for opening up to the outside world for the country and Yunnan. In 1999, 2005 and 2009, the school was awarded the title of "National Model Unit for Ethnic Unity and Progress" by The State Council three times. In 2016, it was awarded the title of "National Model Unit for the Creation of Ethnic Unity and Progress".

The years are golden and the spring blossoms and autumn fruits. The school will further uphold its educational orientation of "national character", "frontier character" and "international character", pay more attention to internal construction, constantly explore and construct the modern university system, focus on building bases for the cultivation of ethnic talents, the inheritance of ethnic culture, the study of ethnic art and the research and consultation of ethnic theory and policy, continue to be based in Yunnan, face the whole country, radiate Southeast Asia and South Asia, Continue to serve ethnic minorities and ethnic regions, to serve the ethnic work of the Party and the country, to serve the strategic needs of the country, and march forward towards an internationally renowned, distinctive and high-level ethnic university.

May 2017