In the past 80 years, Yunnan Normal University is a provincial key normal university with a long history and excellent tradition. It is one of the hundred key universities in the "provincial-ministerial co-construction" of the Ministry of Education and the Yunnan Provincial People's Government, and in the project of improving the basic capacity of the central and western regions of the country.

After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, Peking University, Tsinghua University and Nankai University moved to Kunming Hefei National Southwest United University, which consists of Colleges of Literature, Science, Engineering, Law and Business, and Normal Colleges. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the three universities that formed the United Nations General Assembly were demobilized and returned to the north in 1946. The restructuring system of the Teachers'College remained in Kunming to run independently. It was named the National Kunming Teachers' College. It was renamed Kunming Teachers'College in 1950 and Yunnan Normal University in 1984. After 80 years of development, it has trained more than 300,000 talents at all levels for the country, and is known as the cradle of teachers on the lateritic plateau.

The school covers an area of 3,300 Mu and consists of 24 colleges, 2 independent colleges, 28 affiliated and co-operated primary and secondary schools and kindergartens. The school has more than 40 scientific research institutions, including the National Quality Supervision and Inspection Center for Solar Water Heaters, Yunnan Tourism Industry Research Institute, China-Laos Renewable Energy Joint Laboratory, the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education, the Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education, and the Opening-up and Frontier Safety Center of Southwest China. We will build the first batch of new think tanks with Yunnan characteristics. The school has more than 32,000 full-time doctoral, master and undergraduate students and more than 16,000 adult continuing education students. The library has more than 340,000 books. It is the construction unit of Yunnan Document Information Service Center of China's Higher Education Document Guarantee System. It has built a new generation of "digital campus" with "10,000 trillion backbone". Journal of Yunnan Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) has entered into important evaluation institutions and core journals in China. From 2015 to 2017, the data of influencing factors ranked first in Yunnan's major social sciences periodicals for three consecutive years; in 2014, the column of "China's Frontier Studies" entered the third batch of "Famous Column Construction" list of the Philosophical and Social Sciences Journals of the Ministry of Education; and in 2018, it was selected as the third national "Top 100 Newspapers and Top 100 Social Sciences Journals of 2017". Journal of Yunnan Normal University (Natural Science Edition) is now the "Statistical Source Journal of Chinese Scientific and Technological Papers" (China Science and Technology Core Journal), the "Excellent Scientific and Technological Journal of Chinese Universities" and the A-level periodical of Yunnan Province, China Institute of Science and Technology Information, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Journal of Yunnan Normal University (Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language and Research Edition) is an academic journal of linguistics. It is now an excellent social sciences journal of national universities and A-level Journal of Yunnan Province. It has the characteristics of specialization, uniqueness and internationalization.

The school has 11 disciplines of liberal arts, history, philosophy, law, teaching, management, science, engineering, economy, art and agronomy, forming a multi-disciplinary and coordinated development of disciplines and specialties. In the fourth round of discipline evaluation by the Ministry of Education in 2016, 15 disciplines ranked among the top 70% of universities in China, of which geography ranked the top 20% and pedagogy ranked the top 40%. There are 93 undergraduate majors, including 17 provincial key disciplines, 6 provincial first-class disciplines, 2 post-doctoral research mobile stations, 4 first-level disciplines doctoral degree authorization points, 1 doctoral degree authorization point, 1 second-level disciplines doctoral degree authorization point without first-level disciplines authorization, 28 first-level disciplines master's degree authorization points and 16 master's professional degree authorization points, which are the first batch of enrollment in China. One of the 24 pilot universities that receive and train postgraduates with master's degree in Chinese International Education.

Through the reform and innovation of teacher education, personnel training mode, curriculum system, credit system, teaching content and teaching methods, the school has completed the transformation from traditional normal education to modern teacher education, from traditional normal colleges to high-level universities characterized by teacher education. The school has won 76 national and provincial awards for teaching achievements, including the first prize for teaching achievements at the national level; it has a national teaching team, an innovative experimental zone for training model at the national level, a pilot project for the reform of national educational system, a national characteristic specialty, a pilot project for comprehensive reform of national specialty, a national quality course, a national experimental teaching demonstration center and a national bilingual teaching center. There are 135 national "quality engineering" construction projects, including teaching demonstration courses, national famous teaching teachers, innovative teams of the Ministry of Education, and demonstration projects for the construction of teaching staff. They have achieved full coverage of national teaching quality projects. They have initiated Yunnan Institute of Discipline Inspection and Supervision, established Yunnan Research Institute, and led 14 normal universities in Yunnan Province to join in the establishment of Yunnan University Teacher Education Alliance. National-level colleges and universities with innovative entrepreneurship training programs have won honors such as "National Excellent Educational Administration of General Colleges and Universities", "National Advanced Collective of Adult Higher Education in Colleges and Universities", "National Advanced Units of Adult Higher Education in General Colleges and Universities", "National Employment Experience Colleges for Graduates". Graduates'employment has entered the top 50 universities in China and top 10 local undergraduate colleges and universities. In the Ministry of Education undergraduate teaching level evaluation to obtain excellence.

The school has two national-level platforms: the National Solar Energy Quality Inspection Center and the China-Laos Renewable Energy Joint Laboratory. There are more than 40 provincial and ministerial research platforms and bases, such as the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education, the Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education, the Key Laboratory of Yunnan Province, the Engineering Center of Yunnan Province, and the Philosophy and Social Science Research Base of Yunnan Province. There are 19 provincial and ministerial innovation teams, such as Yunnan Philosophy and Social Sciences Innovation Team. There are 2 provincial-level collaborative innovation centers, namely, Southwest China's geo environment and frontier development Collaborative Innovation Center, and the southwest regional renewable energy research and development collaborative innovation center. There are 1 Southwest China's opening up and border security research centers, 1 new key think tanks in Yunnan province. Two new think tanks of Yunnan universities. From 2011 to 2017, the school has received 1918 scientific research projects at all levels and a total of 767 million yuan in research funds, 233 new projects from the National Natural Science Foundation and 101 from the National Social Science Foundation, including 17 national-level major (point) projects such as the National Science and Technology Support Plan, the National Science and Technology Benefiting the People Plan, the National Social Science Foundation's major bidding projects, and the National Social Science Foundation's special entrusted projects. A total of 674 publications were published, of which 190 were published by Class A Publishing House. A total of 13988 papers were published, including 1475 papers retrieved from three major sources and 1088 papers from CSSCI. A total of 203 scientific research awards were won, including 1 second prize for national technological invention, 3 second prize for outstanding achievements in scientific research in universities (humanities and social sciences), and 2 third prize for Science in Yunnan Province. Twelve technical awards (three second-class awards, nine third-class awards), 163 outstanding achievements awards of philosophy and Social Sciences in Yunnan Province (eight first-class awards, 30 second-class awards and 125 third-class awards); 178 authorized patents, 142 software copyright registration, and 3 national standards were awarded by the National Standards Committee.

There are more than 2,400 faculty members and 887 senior titles in the school. Among them, there are specially appointed professors of "Yangtze River Scholars" of the Ministry of Education, leaders of the "Ten Thousands Plan", experts with outstanding contributions from the state, national "Ten Thousands of Talents Project", the "Hundred Plan" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, national famous teachers of teaching, young teachers awards of the Ministry of Education, and candidates of the "Outstanding Talents Training Plan for the New Century" The project of "Light of the West" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has trained a number of experts and scholars, such as planned personnel, the most beautiful Communist Party members, national model teachers, excellent teachers, and major experts in theoretical research and construction of Marxism. Nobel laureate Yang Zhenning, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences Yang Le, Guo Bailing, Dai Ruwei, Ouyang Ziyuan, Academician of Royal College of Engineering, Professor Amaratonga of Cambridge University, Nobel Laureate of Economics, Academician of British Academy of Social Sciences, former editor-in-chief of New York Times, former chairman of Pulitzer Prize Review Committee, Simer Toping, world-renowned future Dr. John Naisbitt, a scientist, and Wu Jinglian, a famous economist, are employed as honorary professors, visiting professors or part-time professors in more than 40 countries and regions.

The school is an open and internationalized modern university, which has been identified by the Ministry of Education and the National Office of Han Dynasty as one of the 10 key universities supporting Chinese teaching in the surrounding countries, the Taiwan Office of the State Council as the "old site of the National Southwest United University" cross-strait exchange base, the Overseas Chinese Education Base of the State Council, the National Training Base for Chinese International Promotion Teachers, and China's progress to Southeast Asian countries. Bases for training Chinese teachers, the first batch of universities hosting Confucius Institutes overseas, universities receiving scholarships from the Chinese Government and Confucius Institutes, the first batch of demonstration bases for studying abroad in China, the Training and Research Center for Overseas Studies of the Ministry of Education, the National HSK Examination and Chinese as a Second Foreign Language Teaching Qualification Examination Point and universities with the right to recruit students from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan 。 The school has established one Confucius Institute, four Confucius Classrooms and six Chinese Language and Culture Centers abroad. It has cooperated with more than 160 foreign universities and scientific research institutions in more than 60 countries and regions, such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. It has won the first provincial and ministerial Overseas Chinese Academy of the State Council, which has enrolled more than 80 countries. Over 16,000 foreign students are enrolled, which is one of the universities with the largest number of foreign students in Yunnan Province.

Schools have been awarded by the Central Committee of the CPC, the State Council, the Ministry of Education, the National Federation of Trade Unions and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League to national advanced grass-roots party organizations, model collectives of national unity and progress, advanced collectives of education system, model schools governed by law, workers'vanguard, the May 4th Red Banner League Committee, graduates' typical employment experience colleges and universities, model training units of the "National Training Plan" and campus cultural construction of colleges and universities. Establish the first prize unit for outstanding achievements; won the first special prize in the extracurricular scientific and technological works competition of the National University Students'Challenge Cup in Yunnan Province; won the first prize and the first prize in the National University Students' Mathematical Modeling Competition, the National University Students'Speech Competition, the National College Students' English Competition, the National Teachers'Teaching Skills Competition; won the first prize and the first prize in the grass-roots Party Building Demonstration Demonstration sites for the construction of type-B Party organizations, provincial Party committees striving to give priority to grass-roots Party organizations and theoretical positions in Yunnan Province. Classes, associations and individuals of the school also emerged a number of national advanced class collective pacesetters, the national advanced "learning Leifeng" group, the national outstanding student associations of colleges and universities, the national "Xiaoping Science and Technology Innovation Team", the top eight CUBA women's basketball league matches and athletes who won gold, silver and bronze medals in Athens, Beijing, London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

In the new stage of historical development, the school will take Li De Shu as the foundation, improve the quality of personnel training as the core, take the construction of first-class disciplines as the main line, actively serve Yunnan's leapfrog development, be a pioneer of Yunnan's teacher education reform and innovation, and speed up the construction of high-level universities featuring teacher education.