Yunnan University for Nationalities is a comprehensive university that trains high-level professionals from all ethnic groups. It is a provincial key university jointly built by the Ministry of Education, the National Ethnic Affairs Commission and the People's Government of Yunnan Province. Founded on August 1, 1951, formerly known as Yunnan University for Nationalities, the university is one of the earliest universities for nationalities in the People's Republic of China. It was renamed Yunnan University for Nationalities in April 2003, and has gone through 70 years.

The university has now become a comprehensive university with complete disciplines and distinctive school running characteristics, covering 10 disciplines including philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, management, and art. It has formed a discipline and specialty pattern with ethnology, sociology, national language and literature, Southeast Asia and South Asia language and culture as its advantages, with equal emphasis on arts and science, and coordinated development of multiple disciplines. The university has 2 post doctoral research mobile stations, 2 first level discipline doctor stations, 16 first level discipline master stations, 11 second level discipline master stations (excluding the second level discipline master stations covered by the first level discipline), 16 professional master stations and 76 undergraduate specialties, including 11 national first-class undergraduate specialty construction stations, 18 provincial first-class undergraduate specialty construction stations, and 29 specialties have entered the ranks of "Double 10000 Plan" first-class undergraduate specialty construction stations. At present, there are 11 provincial key disciplines and advantageous specialties, 8 national specialties and 26 provincial advantageous specialties. The school has "National Demonstration Base for Traditional Ethnic Sports", "National University Counselor Development Research Center (Yunnan University for Nationalities)", "Training and Research Center for Ideological and Political Work Teams in Colleges and Universities of the Ministry of Education (Yunnan University for Nationalities)", "Education and Training Base for Grass roots Legal Talents in the West of the Ministry of Education", "National Ethnic Affairs Commission Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ethnic Medicine Resource Chemistry", and the Ministry of Education Preparatory Education and Training Base for Ethnic Minorities.