Yuxi Normal University, founded in 2000 with the the approval of the Ministry of Education, is generally a full-time and provincial undergraduate-level university. Historically, Yuxi Normal University was developed from the Yuxi Normal Diploma-level Training Class in 1978, Yuxi Normal Diploma-level College in 1983, and Yuxi Normal Advanced Diploma-level College in 1992.In 2007, the university passed the evaluation organized by Ministry of Education for evaluating the level of teaching undergraduates. In 2017, it achieved a good grade in the audit evaluation of teaching undergraduates conducted by the Ministry of Education. In 2019 it became a model university for cultivating application-oriented undergraduates in Yunnan province. Yuxi Normal University is located in Yuxi city,  Nie Er’s hometown, famous and listed  in the Top Ten Ecologically Livable Cities in China. This university covers an area of 1014 mu. Among all the universities outside of Kunming in Yunnan province,  it is the nearest one to Kunming,  the provincial capital city. Yuxi Normal University aims clearly to build itself into a first-class local application-oriented university. Thus it gradually constructs its pre-employment and post-employment running system by centering on full-time undergraduate-level education, taking positive steps to develop postgraduate-level education, trying harder to carry out international students’ education and  taking initiative actions to  integrate  into regional higher vocational and technical education. With Truth, Goodness, Beauty and Application as its motto, Yuxi Normal University keeps a foothold in the central part of Yunnan province, takes root in Yuxi city, serves all across Yunnan province, and tries to expanding its service to the whole country and Southeast Asia. By cultivating 65,000 talents or so to work for developing elementary education, economy, and society in Yuxi and the areas adjacent to Yuxi, Yuxi Normal University makes its contributions regionally, especially in the central part of Yunnan. Yuxi Normal University has been successively awarded such honorary titles as National Civilized Unit, National Advanced Unit of School Art Education, National Advanced Unit of Aesthetic Education in Colleges and Universities, Advanced Unit of Graduate Employment and Entrepreneurship in Yunnan Province, etc.

After many years of construction and development, Yuxi Normal University has built a discipline innovation system of multidisciplinary coordinated development with  educational disciplines as an emphasis, advantageous and characteristic   disciplines as the backbone, and  the needs of economic and social development of the central part of Yunnan province as an aim for application-oriented disciplines. At Yuxi Normal University, now there are one provincial class-B first class discipline, five provincial key disciplines, and three disciplines as Master's Degree projects provincially established and authorized. At the same time, there are one key provincial laboratory, seven key university laboratories, three university engineering research centers, four key laboratories in Yuxi, one talent training model at the provincial innovative and experimental centre, and four experimental teaching centers as provincial examples. In addition, the university owns 23 scientific research institutions. They are  Mekong Sub-region National Folk Culture Museum, Endangered Languages Institute, Paleontology Institute, Research Center of Yuxi Economic and Social Development, Research Center for Pollution Control and Ecological Restoration.

Yuxi Normal University offers 57 majors of which Fine Arts is a national-level characteristic specialty, Thai Language is major a provincial-level key specialty, and Geology, Biology and Visual Design are  provincial-level specialties. During the years 2020 and 2021, five majors, including Fine Arts, Physical Education, Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, Geographical, and Physics, passed the national second-level certification of teachers’ majors. There are five provincial level teaching teams, nine exceptional provincial level courses, seven provincial level first-class courses, one model provincial level bilingual course, one provincial level experimental zone for the cultivation of legal talent in professional and practical law, two provincial level bases for experimental practice and training and technical skills service centers and finally four provincial level star educator studios and one first prize and three second prizes of Yunnan Provincial Teaching Achievement Award.

There are 15 teaching institutions, 13 Party and Administration institutions, 17 subordinate institutions, and three mass  organizations. At present, the university has 13,785 full-time students and 830 teachers. Among the teachers, there are 73 professors, 192 associate professors, and 591 teachers hold Master’s or Doctoral degrees. 14 teachers are honored to be Talents of Re-energizing Yunnan Province, 11 teachers to be Two Types Talent Program of Yunnan Province, 4 teachers to be provincially famous, 56 teachers to be hired based on the High-level Talent Introduction Plan in Yuxi City, 19 people in the High-level Talent Cultivation Support Program. In addition, there are 29 middle-aged teachers playing a leading role in disciplines and  technologies of Yuxi cities.

In recent years, the university has undertaken 514 research projects both at home and abroad, including 13 National Social Science Fund projects, 29 National Natural Science Fund projects, one international cooperation program, 159 provincial and ministerial projects, 224 prefect projects, and 110 horizontal projects. Teachers of the university have published 231 academic monographs and textbooks, and published more than 2,500 academic papers including more than 330 core journals and more than 320 papers included in SCI, EI, CPCI, etc. A total of 47 academic research achievements have been awarded by provincial and municipal relevant departments, and 92 patents have been authorized by teachers.

The library has a paper collection of more than 1,100,000 books, 790,000 e-books, 170,000 kinds of electronic periodicals and 22 professional databases. Full coverage of existing paper periodicals has been achieved at the university. There are 2 publications in this university, including 1 journal, the Journal of Yuxi Normal University, and 1 newspaper, Yuxi Normal University Newspaper.

In recent years, the university successively worked with Huawei Technology Co., Ltd. and National High-tech Development Zone of Yuxi to establish the Yuxi  Internet University. In cooperation with the Yuxi Tourism Development and Reform Commission the Yuxi College of Culture and Innovation was established and a further Maker College was then established with the assistance of Xinhua Online. In cooperation with the Yuxi Discipline Inspection Commission, the Yuxi Discipline, Inspection and Supervision College was established. The Nie Er Art Research Center was built in cooperation with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, then the Nie Er and National Anthem Research Institute was established. With the joint efforts of Publicity Department of Yuxi Municipal Committee, Education and Sports Bureau of Yuxi and the university to build the Nie Er and National Anthem Patriotism Education Base. Worked with Yuxi Jinhui Technology Co., Ltd., the First Kindergarten Affiliated to Yuxi Normal University was was established and the Higher Vocational and Technical College of Yuxi Normal University was set up with the assistance of Yuxi Education and Sports Bureau of Yuxi and Industrial Finance and Trade School of Yuxi. The university also cooperated with Yuxi Sports School to establish Sports Higher Vocational College of Yuxi Normal University and established the Qilu Lake Development Research Center jointly with the government of Tonghai county.

To make the best use of regional resources, Yuxi Normal University conducts scientific research and cultural inheritance. For example, under multiculturalism of the central part of Yunnan, with Yuxi as Nie Er's hometown, under the Mekong Sub-region Experimental Center, together  with the advantages of the  characteristic disciplines such as Fine Arts, Physical Education and Music, Yuxi Normal University continues to effectively excavate, collect, collate and promote folk culture and establish a good foundation for scientific research and innovation. This is to assist in forming the National Folk culture curriculum system with its distinctive characteristics as well as to cultivate a group of applied art and sports talents with an innovative spirit and ability and in so doing operate a distinctive educational institution.

Yuxi Normal University, focusing on cultivating students' abilities, seeks to construct a practical educational system which integrates learning different courses inside the class and doing extracurricular activities outside the class to comprehensively promote the development of students’ core competencies. The university in recent years has been accredited the titles of Yunnan Province University Practical Education Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center and of Armed Forces Standardized Construction Pilot University of Yunnan Province University. The university has been successively awarded the following honorary titles: Model Workplace of National Summer Social Practice Activity; National Unpaid Blood Donation Promotion Award; the Ninth Chinese Youth Volunteer Outstanding Organization Award; National Program for Excellence in College Students Volunteer Services for the Western regions. In total students have won 85 national awards across many important competitions such as the Chinese "Internet +" college students innovation and entrepreneurship competition, students extracurricular academic science and technology works Challenge-Cup competition, the mathematical modeling competition for college students, vocational skills competition for students of normal tertiary level institutions.

Yuxi Normal University has taken the initiative to participate in and serve the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative Strategy and of South and South-east Asia radiation center of Yunnan province and has always held the concept of globalization at its heart. While reinforcing the establishment of long-term and stable cooperative relationships with universities and schools of South and South-east Asia such as Thailand, Burma, Laos and other neighboring countries, the university has successively carried out various forms of joint education, from exchanges of teachers and students to scientific cooperation and academic and cultural exchanges with universities and colleges from the United States, Britain, Canada, Bulgaria, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and other countries. Yuxi Normal University has set up 30 internship bases abroad and 3 Chinese Language and Culture Centers overseas. At the same time, the university also serves as the first Chinese language and culture education base for the Yunnan Province as well as a test site for the Chinese language proficiency exam otherwise known as HSK.

Yuxi Normal University fully implements the fundamental task of cultivating students’ morality，continues to accelerate its transformation and development， and tries its best to build a first-class local application-oriented university. (The data in this introduction has been collected within the year of 2021)