Dali University

Dali University is a higher education institution jointly established by the province and the state. Its predecessor was Dali Medical College and Dali Teachers College, which were established in 1978. In 2001, the two schools merged to form Dali College, which was approved as a master's degree-granting institution in 2003. It was renamed Dali University in 2015 and approved as a doctoral degree-granting institution in 2021. After 43 years of accumulation, the school has developed into a comprehensive university with advantages in biomedicine, ethnic culture, and ecological environment, and education for international students as its characteristics. It is the earliest undergraduate university in non-provincial capital cities in Yunnan Province and the only one with the right to grant master's degrees and doctoral degrees. Its role and status as a "leader" in local universities in Yunnan are increasingly prominent and consolidated.

The school is located in Dali, the central city of western Yunnan. The campus covers an area of ​​more than 2,300 acres, with two campuses in Gucheng and Xiaguan. The school is full of green grass, birds and flowers, and is known as "a university in the mountains and rivers, and mountains and rivers in the university".

The school has 19 secondary colleges and research institutes, and 10 affiliated hospitals. There are 72 undergraduate majors, 1 doctoral degree authorization point, 8 first-level discipline master's degree authorization points, and 15 master's professional degree authorization points. There are 4 national "first-class major" construction points and 16 provincial "first-class major" construction points.

The school has brought together more than 160 national and provincial and ministerial high-level talents such as the national "Ten Thousand Talents Plan" scientific and technological innovation leaders, the Ministry of Education's "Changjiang Scholars" distinguished professors, and the National Outstanding Youth Science Fund winners. There are more than 20 provincial and ministerial scientific research platforms and above, such as the National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center for the Development of Special Medicinal Insects, the National Teacher Development Collaborative Innovation Experimental Base, and the National Ethnic Affairs Commission National Theory and Policy Research Base, and more than 20 provincial and ministerial innovation teams.

In the past five years, the school has won more than 200 projects from the National Natural Science Foundation, the National Social Science Foundation, and the Ministry of Education's humanities and social science projects. Among them, the number of National Social Science Foundation projects in religious studies in 2019 ranked first in the country together with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. More than 100 academic papers have been published in top international journals such as Nature Communications, and more than 30 provincial and ministerial teaching and research achievement awards have been won, including the National Innovation Award, the Second Prize for National Teaching Achievements, and the First Prize for Yunnan Science and Technology Progress.

Since 2006, the school has won the first prize for employment of college graduates in Yunnan Province; in 2008, it received an excellent conclusion in the evaluation of undergraduate teaching work of the Ministry of Education; in 2009, it was rated as one of the 50 universities with typical experience in graduate employment in the country; in 2015, it was rated as a "National Civilized Unit"; in 2018, it was fully affirmed and praised by the expert group of the Ministry of Education in the undergraduate teaching review and evaluation. In 2021, it was approved as a doctoral degree-granting unit.

For a long time, the school has adhered to the service positioning of "based in Dali, serving western Yunnan, facing Yunnan and surrounding provinces and regions, and radiating South Asia and Southeast Asia". Focusing on the needs of regional economic and social development, the school is committed to talent training, scientific research, cultural inheritance and innovation, international cooperation and exchange. The school-running results are constantly showing, and the school-running characteristics are increasingly prominent. It has made positive contributions to expanding Dali's influence, enhancing Dali's popularity, and promoting regional economic and social development.

First, it is rooted in western Yunnan and provides talent guarantee and intellectual support for the economic and social development of ethnic minority areas in the western Yunnan border. In the 43 years since its establishment, the school has adhered to the original intention of "changing the lack of medical care and medicine and backward education in western Yunnan", closely combined with the unique location and resource advantages of Yunnan Province and western Yunnan, and continuously explored the characteristics of disciplines and majors, and innovated talent training models. More than 150,000 high-quality talents who "can go down, stay, use, and play a role" have been trained. Among them, 80% of graduates stay in western Yunnan and other frontier ethnic minority areas to work, providing talent guarantee and intellectual support for promoting border prosperity and stability, ethnic unity and harmony.

Second, we actively serve the local area and actively carry out scientific and technological innovation in production, education, research and application, providing technical support for the high-quality economic and social development of ethnic minority areas in the western Yunnan border. The school adheres to the scientific research concept of "one mountain, one water, one tribe and one history", and is committed to biomedicine research and development, ethnic culture research, ecological environment protection, development of characteristic medicinal plants in western Yunnan, and research on endemic disease prevention and control. After several generations of efforts, the school has built a "biomedicine discipline group" to support Yunnan's biomedicine and health industry and a "national culture discipline group" to promote the prosperity and stability of ethnic minority areas in the western Yunnan border, which has strongly supported the industrial development in western Yunnan.

Third, we actively serve the national strategy, expand the space for open schooling, and enhance the educational and cultural radiation capacity facing South Asia and Southeast Asia. Over the years, the school has adhered to the internationalization of education and school-running concept of "integrating the culture of the world and casting the university spirit", actively serving the national strategy and comprehensively promoting international cooperation and exchanges. Since 2002, it has begun to recruit Southeast Asian students, and since 2005, it has begun to recruit clinical medicine students from South Asian countries such as India. In 2006, it was listed as one of the first batch of pilot universities for the "going out" strategy in Yunnan Province, and in 2008 it was identified as the "Yunnan International Applied Talent Training Base". At present, the school has established cooperative relations with more than 50 universities and educational institutions in 19 countries, with more than 1,100 full-time international students from 22 countries, including more than 50 international graduate students. According to data released by the Ministry of Education, the number of full-time degree-granting international students in the school ranks among the top universities in the country, and has long been ranked first among universities in the western part of the country.

At present, the school is focusing on the goal of building a "first-class university and the most beautiful campus", implementing the strategy of "strengthening the school with talents, developing the school with academics, establishing the school with quality, shaping the school with culture, and activating the school with openness", promoting the modernization of educational ideas, the informatization of management methods, and the internationalization of educational standards, promoting the school's connotation development, characteristic development, and open development, and striving to build Dali University into a regional high-level comprehensive university with distinctive characteristics, first-class in the province, well-known in the country, and with great influence in South Asia and Southeast Asia.

The "biomedical discipline group" of Yunnan's biomedical and health industry and the "ethnic culture discipline group" that promotes the prosperity and stability of ethnic minority areas in the western Yunnan border have strongly supported the industrial development in western Yunnan.

Third, actively serve the national strategy, expand the space for open education, and enhance the educational and cultural radiation capacity facing South Asia and Southeast Asia. Over the years, the school has adhered to the internationalization of education and school-running philosophy of "integrating the culture of the world and casting the university spirit", actively serving the national strategy, and comprehensively promoting international cooperation and exchanges. Since 2002, it has begun to recruit Southeast Asian students, and since 2005, it has begun to recruit clinical medicine students from South Asian countries such as India. In 2006, it was listed as the first batch of pilot universities for the "going out" strategy in Yunnan Province, and in 2008 it was identified as the "Yunnan International Applied Talent Training Base". At present, the school has established cooperative relations with more than 50 universities and educational institutions in 19 countries, with more than 1,100 full-time international students from 22 countries, including more than 50 overseas graduate students. According to data released by the Ministry of Education, the number of full-time international students in the university ranks among the top universities in China, and has long been ranked first among universities in western China.

At present, the university is focusing on the goal of building a "first-class university and the most beautiful campus", implementing the strategy of "strengthening the university with talents, developing the university with academics, establishing the university with quality, shaping the university with culture, and activating the university with openness", promoting the modernization of educational ideas, informatization of management methods, and internationalization of educational standards, promoting the connotation development, characteristic development, and open development of the university, and striving to build Dali University into a regional high-level comprehensive university with distinctive characteristics, first-class in the province, well-known in China, and with great influence in South Asia and Southeast Asia.