Yunnan 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.

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.

The university began to enroll foreign students in 1981 and foreign master's students in 1992. It is one of the first universities in Yunnan Province to enroll foreign students and teach Chinese as a foreign language,