Xinjiang University is a comprehensive university with a long history of education, glorious revolutionary tradition and distinct characteristics. It plays an important role in the layout of national higher education and has a special regional position. It is the leader and platoon leader of higher education in autonomous regions.

In 1924, the predecessor of Xinjiang University, Xinjiang Russian Special School of Law and Politics, was founded, which opened the prelude of Xinjiang's higher education. In January 1935, it was transformed into Xinjiang College. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, a group of progressives, such as Yu Xiusong, Lin Jilu and Du Chongyuan, came to teach in the school, such as Communists and writers Mao Dun, philosopher Zhang Zhongshi and artist Zhao Dan. They put forward the educational idea of "taking nationality as the form and taking horse as the content". They set off a vigorous propaganda campaign of resisting Japan and saving the nation. With the increasing social influence, the school was praised as "the second largest in resisting Japan".

In 1960, Xinjiang University was formally established and entered a new period of development. Xinjiang University ranked among the key universities established by the state. In 1978, the school was designated by the State Council as one of the first 88 key universities and one of the 16 comprehensive key universities in China. In 1997, the school was listed in the first batch of national "211 Project" key construction universities. In 2000, it was designated by the Ministry of Education as a key university for the development of the western part of the country. In the same year, Xinjiang University merged with the former Xinjiang Institute of Technology to form a new Xinjiang University. In 2004, the school became a "co-construction" University of the People's Government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and the Ministry of Education. In 2012, the school was listed as the national "comprehensive strength enhancement project of colleges and universities in the central and Western regions" ("one province and one school"). In 2017, it entered the ranks of 42 first-class universities in China. In 2018, it was listed in the ranks of "joint construction of ministries and provinces" universities.

In the course of more than 90 years'development, the school takes the maintenance of the reunification of the motherland, national unity, national security and social stability as its own responsibility, takes serving the national development strategy and the needs of economic and social development in autonomous regions as its mission and historical responsibility, upholds the motto of "unity, progress, realism and innovation", takes root in China, in the reality of Xinjiang University, and builds up people's morality. The fundamental task is to train more than 200,000 ethnic specialists for Xinjiang's economic and social development with the fundamental aim of running a university that is satisfactory to the people. It has written a magnificent chapter for the development of Xinjiang's higher education.

Xinjiang University has 24 colleges, 1 Graduate school, 1 independent college, 1 teaching research department, 4 teaching practice centers, 8 research institutes and 1 International Research Center for sustainable development of arid and semi-arid regions.

There are nine disciplines in economics, law, literature, history, science, engineering, management, art and philosophy, which cover the main fields of training senior specialized talents and scientific research. The school has been listed in the national excellent engineers, outstanding legal personnel training program to implement universities, the Ministry of Education undergraduate comprehensive reform pilot universities. There are 2 national key disciplines, 1 National Key Cultivation discipline; 6 peak disciplines in autonomous regions and 7 plateau disciplines in autonomous regions; 14 doctoral degree-authorized disciplines, 31 master's degree-authorized disciplines, 11 post-doctoral research mobile stations and 10 master's degree categories; 91 undergraduate disciplines, including 10 national characteristic disciplines, 19 talent-intensive disciplines in autonomous regions, and 1. Two key majors in autonomous region.

In 2017, Xinjiang University received 908 scientific research projects, with a total funding of 17.49 million yuan. It undertakes five major projects, including one key project of philosophy and Social Sciences Research of the Ministry of Education, four key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation-Xinjiang Joint Fund, 1454 academic papers published publicly, and four prizes of the Special Prize, the Second Prize and the Third Prize for the Advancement of Science and Technology of the Autonomous Region.

There are 56 scientific research platforms (teams) at or above the provincial level in Xinjiang University, of which 2 are collaborative innovation centers at the autonomous region level; 1 is a national key laboratory cultivation base, 1 is a national international scientific and technological cooperation base, 3 is a Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education, 11 is an autonomous region key laboratory (engineering and technical research center), and 7 is a Key Laboratory of universities in the autonomous region. One Engineering Research Center and two engineering research centers of autonomous region; one key research base of Humanities and social sciences of Ministry of Education and nine key research bases of Humanities and social sciences of colleges and universities of autonomous region; one national scientific research and teaching talent training base; one innovation team in key fields of Ministry of Science and Technology, four innovation teams of Ministry of Education, one Tianshan innovation team of Ministry of Science and Technology, and one innovation team of Ministry of Education. New team 10; Autonomous Region Resource Sharing Platform 1.

There are 36 157 students in various fields, including 21025 ordinary undergraduates, 5159 full-time Master students, 453 doctoral students, 1039 part-time graduate students, 904 international students and 7577 adult undergraduates.

There are 36 157 students in various fields, including 21025 ordinary undergraduates, 5159 full-time Master students, 453 doctoral students, 1039 part-time graduate students, 904 international students and 7577 adult undergraduates.

There are 1879 full-time teachers (including shoulder-to-shoulder teachers), 48.86% of the total number of full-time teachers are teachers with senior professional titles, and 38.03% of the total number of full-time teachers are teachers with doctoral degrees. There are currently one academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, four specially appointed professors of the "Yangtze River Scholars" of the Ministry of Education, one "Huangdanian Teachers Team" of National Colleges and Universities, seven "Thousand People Program" (Xinjiang Project), four "Ten People Program", three national candidates for the national project of millions of talents in the new century, 10 "Excellent Talents Support Program for the New Century" of the Ministry of Education, and 40 Tianshan Scholars in the autonomous region. There are 14 outstanding experts, 39 experts with special allowances from the State Council, 15 teaching experts at the autonomous region level and 23 famous teachers.

The school has established educational exchanges and cooperation relations with more than 160 universities and scientific research institutes in more than 30 countries and regions such as the United States and Russia, signed educational exchanges and cooperation agreements with more than 60 foreign universities and educational institutions, and established three Confucius institutes/classrooms in Kyrgyzstan and Russia. The school is a project school of Shanghai Cooperation Organization University, Fulbright Project School of the Ministry of Education and Meida Project School of the Ministry of Education. It is a self-enrollment Project School of Chinese government scholarship, a scholarship project school of Confucius Institute and a scholarship project school of Xinjiang government.

In 2010, the Ministry of Education arranged Tsinghua University as group leader, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Wuhan University and Zhongnan University as Deputy Group leader, Beijing Normal University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Dalian University of Technology, Tongji University, Donghua University and China University of Mining and Technology as members of 10 universities to support Xinjiang University. In 2013, Renmin University and Zhongshan University joined the support University team.

The headquarters of Xinjiang University, South Campus and North Campus occupy a total area of 2909,000 square meters (about 4363 mu). The total value of fixed assets is about 2.4 billion yuan, and the total value of teaching and scientific research instruments and equipment is 610 million yuan. The library is the Provincial Central Library of China's higher education literature guarantee system (CALIS), with a total volume of 34.665 million books and documents. Campus network, CERNET main node of Xinjiang region, control center of Xinjiang education regional network and Urumqi education metropolitan area network have been built. It has a modern digital library and a first-class multi-functional gymnasium in Northwest China.

By 2024, a high-level university will be built in an all-round way, which is "advanced in the west, first-class in Central Asia and internationally renowned". By 2035, the overall level of the school will reach the first-class in China and become the most influential regional first-class university in Central Asia. By 2050, a first-class university with Chinese characteristics will be basically built.