Established in August 1950, Northwest University for Nationalities, directly under the leadership of State Ethnic Affairs Commission, is the first minorities’ university following the founding of New China. Based in Northwest China, the university enrolls its students from 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, with a total number of 16,000 students of 46 nationalities on campus now.

There are 21 faculties and departments: Economics & Administration Faculty, Language & Cultural Spreading Faculty, Foreign Languages & Literature Faculty, Tibetan Language & Literature Faculty, Mongolian Language & Literature Faculty, History & Culture Faculty, Social Anthropology & Folklore Faculty, Modern Education & Technology, Faculty of Law, Computer Science & Information Engineering Faculty, Electric Engineering Faculty, Faculty of Medicine, Life Science & Engineering Faculty, Chemical Engineering Faculty, Faculty of Further Education and Vocational & Technical Education, Academy of Fine Arts, Conservatory of Music & Dance, Physical Education Faculty, Department of Preparatory Course, Department of Marxist Theory & Moral Education Research, Civil Engineering Faculty in the university where its undergraduate educational system offers 48 specialized subjects under 11 disciplines, and 31 subjects have the authorization to confer master’s degrees and one subject---Chinese Minority Languages and Literature---can grant a doctor’s degree. Chinese Minority Languages & Literature, Gesarology, Folklore and Religion have been ranked as four provincial-level key disciplines while Chinese Minorities Economy, Marxist Theory and Policy on Minority, Computer Application & Technology as 3 key disciplines of State Ethnic Affairs Commission.

4 research institutes of independently organizational system have been established: Chinese Minority Information & Technology Research Institute, Gesarology Research Institute, Overseas National Documents Research Institute and Islamic Culture Research Institute, and 8 research institutes of department-institute-combined-into-one system: Northwest China Tibetan Studies Institute, Western Mongolian Culture Research Institute, Animal Production Research Institute, Uigur Language & Culture Research Institute, Minority Cultures Research Institute, etc..

The university has the library, Northwest Minorities Museum, Science Experimental Centre, Modern Education & Technology Centre, and Sino-British English Teachers Training Centre for Northwest Minorities. The library houses a collection of 1,400,000 or so books (including electronic books) and the museum possesses 1000 around cultural and historical relics with distinct national features.

The university edits and publishes the Journal of Northwest University for Nationalities, Northwest Minorities Studies, etc., among which Northwest Minorities Studies is an international guiding periodic of ULICH and is listed as “First-rate Prestigious Journal at the Provincial Level”; the philosophy & social science edition in Chinese and the Tibetan edition of the Journal of Northwest University for Nationalities are crowned as one of the second and third national hundred authoritative journals, the Tibetan edition as national excellent journal.

Importance has been attached to scientific research, which has attained remarkable achievements: Tibetan-Chinese Bilingual Word Information Processing System and its serial items have led the world in those fields and achieved ten scientific fruits in recent years, of which Tibetan-Chinese Bilingual Information Processing System won the second National Prize for Progress in Science and Technology in 1999 and Tibetan Window Flat?Word Processing Software and Tibetan Website the second National Prize for Progress in Science and Technology in 2001, thus the first Tibetan Website in the internet has been erected in the world. The university has undertaken many an anti-poverty project supported by science and technology in minority areas that has produced prominently economic benefits: the research and exploitation of Galiba Calf Serum project and its series have been under positive development; Sino-American joint venture---Minhai Bioengineering Co. ---established between the university and American Hyclone Corporation has borne social and economic benefits.

Sticking to the principle “to impart education and cultivate people”, the university always put the moral education in the first place and pushes forward national unity and progress. In recent years, the State Council has twice titled the university as “Model Unit for National Unity and Progress”.

With the development of various programs, the university has continued to expand its exchanges and cooperation with the outside world, and to establish a good relationship of cooperation with institutions of higher learning and research units in such more than 10 foreign countries and regions as USA, UK, Japan, Germany, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Pakistan, Finland, Holland, Mongolia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc..