Yunnan Minzu University Chinese Government Scholarship

About the university

Yunnan Minzu University (YMU), located in Kunming, Yunnan Province, is a comprehensive provincial key university run by the People's Government of Yunnan Province. It is jointly established by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, the National Ethnic Affairs Commission, and the People's Government of Yunnan Province. It is a first-class discipline construction university in Yunnan, selected for the Ministry of Education's 'Excellent Legal Talent Education and Training Plan', a bilingual talent training base of the National Ethnic Affairs Commission, a recipient institution for Chinese Government Scholarship international students, and a doctoral degree-granting unit. It has been awarded the title of National Model Unit for Ethnic Unity and Progress four times by the State Council. Founded on August 1, 1951, as Yunnan Institute of Nationalities, it is one of the earliest ethnic higher education institutions established in the People's Republic of China. In 1972, it was included in the regular higher education institution system of Yunnan Province. In 1984, it became a master's degree-granting unit. In 1993, it was listed as one of the five provincial key universities. In 2003, it was renamed Yunnan Minzu University. In 2005, it was designated as a university jointly built by the Yunnan Provincial Government and the National Ethnic Affairs Commission. In 2013, it became a doctoral degree-granting unit. In 2015, it became a graduate enrollment unit for the 'High-Level Talents Program for Ethnic Minorities'. In 2025, it was selected as one of the second batch of pilot universities for the interdisciplinary construction of the Chinese National Community Studies. As of November 2025, the university has five campuses: Lianhua, Yuhua, Jiulongchi, Fengning, and Haikou, covering an area of 2,564 mu, with a total building area of 1.06 million square meters. It has 20 colleges, offering 77 undergraduate programs, with 3 postdoctoral research stations, 3 first-level doctoral degree programs, 1 second-level interdisciplinary doctoral program, 17 first-level master's degree programs, and 26 professional master's degree categories. It has 1,912 faculty and staff members, and approximately 34,000 enrolled undergraduate, master's, doctoral, and international students. As of November 2024, the total value of teaching and research equipment assets was 267.2834 million yuan. In September 1950, the Southwest Military and Political Commission instructed the Yunnan Provincial Government by telegram to prepare for the establishment of Yunnan Institute of Nationalities in accordance with the spirit of the Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. On May 11, 1951, the 22nd executive meeting of the Yunnan Provincial Government decided to establish the preparatory committee for Yunnan Institute of Nationalities, with Zhou Baozhong, Vice Chairman of the Yunnan Provincial Government, as the chairman of the preparatory committee. Nanking School was selected as the campus site, and Long Yun, chairman of the board of Nanking Middle School, donated all the property of Nanking Middle School to the institute. In May, the first batch of students began to report, enrolling a total of 685 students. On August 1, Yunnan Institute of Nationalities was officially established, with Zhou Baozhong concurrently serving as the president. In its early days, the main task was to train ethnic minority cadres. From 1951 to 1957, the university undertook the cadre training tasks of the Yunnan Provincial Government's Ethnic Work Team, conducting centralized training for ethnic minorities, contributing to the stability and development of border ethnic areas. On July 14, 1958, the Yunnan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China approved the dissolution of the original Party group of Yunnan Institute of Nationalities and the establishment of the Party committee of Yunnan Institute of Nationalities, directly under the leadership of the provincial committee. In the second half of the year, 1,100 teachers and students were organized into five brigades to go to border prefectures for 'Great Leap Forward' internships, and classroom teaching was suspended. In 1960, the university added an ethnic literature and art class to train ethnic minority literary and art workers. At the same time, it opened a university preparatory course to provide qualified candidates for higher education institutions.