As the national comprehensive university under the direct authority of the Ministry of Education, Lanzhou University（LZU）is one of the universities supported by the "Project 985" and “Project 211”.
Founded in 1909, the predecessor of LZU was Gansu Law and Politics School, which marked the beginning of modern higher education in Gansu Province and pioneered higher education in the Northwest region. In 1928, Gansu Law and Politics School was expanded into Sun Yat-sen University of Lanzhou and in 1945, National Lanzhou University. After the founding of People’s Republic of China, by pursuing the education strategy of the Communist party of China and insisting on the right direction of development, it grew bigger and became well established within a short period of time. During the process of adjusting the departments of higher institutions, LZU was identified as one of the fourteen comprehensive universities in China. Guided by such strategic goals as “developing the northwest region” and “establishing strategic base”, it has grown into an university with strategic significance, embarking on the historic mission of training high-level talents for the country, especially in the west region of China, and developing science, technology and culture. Since the reform and opening up initiative was adopted, by seizing the historic opportunity brought by such strategies as “rejuvenating our country through science and education” and “strengthen the nation with trained personnel”, as well as such projects as “Project 985” and “Project 211” implemented at the national level, LZU has enhanced its standard across the board guided by the principle of liberating the minds and driven by reform and opening up. In 2002 and 2004, Gansu Grassland Ecology Research Institute and Lanzhou Medical College were successively incorporated into LZU, which further enriched its disciplines and made its comprehensive advantage even more prominent and ushered into the stage of rapid development in its history. With its long history, strength in running school and outstanding performance, it ranked among the top universities in China.
Lanzhou, the hinterland of mainland China, where LZU is located, lies in the upper reaches of Yellow River, is an important city in northwest region. With its beautiful mountains and rivers, profound history and brilliant culture and multiple ethnic groups, it is a prior choice for university to thrive and talents to develop.
Occupying around 583 acres of land in total, LZU has two campuses and three affiliated hospitals. Also, it has a total of 19,775 undergraduates, 10,572 postgraduates and 2,559 doctor candidates. There are 3,718 faculty members, including 2,135 full-time teaching faculty, 836 administrative staff and 142 post doctoral researchers (including 45 post doctors reserved as teaching staff). There are 588 professors and 927 associate professors. In clinical medicine, there are 101 professors and 252 associate professors. LZU has 1,695 graduate students’ supervisors, composed of 578 supervisors for doctor candidates and 1,117 supervisors for post graduates. Notably, 15 teachers are elected academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering; 10 are appointed as leading talents of the “Ten Thousand Talents Plan”. There are 18 distinguished professors awarded by the “Yangze River Scholars Program”, 22 winners of National Outstanding Youth Fund, 12 candidates selected in the National Millions Program, 8 leading young talents of the “Innovation Talents Development Project” , 4 teaching master of higher education admitted by the Ministry of Education, 5 leading youth talents of “Ten Thousand Talents Plan”, 4 young candidates of “Yangtze River Scholar Program”, 23 winners of the National Science Fund for Outstanding Young Scholars, 110 "New Era Talents" admitted by the Ministry of Education, 27 teaching master of higher education admitted by Gnsu Province and 88 leading personnel recognized by Gansu Province. LZU also boasts 4 Innovative Research Groups of NSFC (National Science Fund Committee), 8 Innovative Teams of the Ministry of Education, 7 Higher Education Talents-introducing Bases for Disciplinary Innovation and 5 Celebrated Teaching Teams on national level.
Covering a wide range of disciplines with distinctive advantage, LZU has a total of 12 disciplines.
Up to now, LZU has 8 national key disciplines, 2 national key (cultivation) disciplines, 35 provincial key disciplines and 3 provincial key (cultivation) disciplines. Moreover, it has 2 state key laboratories, 2 nation-local joint engineering laboratories, 1 state joint laboratory, 6 key laboratories of the Ministry of Education, 4 engineering research centers of the Ministry of Education, 1 key laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture, 17 key laboratories of Gansu Province (including incubators), 2 technology innovation centers of Gansu Province, 4 research center for clinical medicineof Gansu Province , 4 service platforms for technology and science innovation and 8 outdoor observation and research stations of Gansu Province, 9 engineering research centers of Gansu Province (engineering laboratories), 2 key laboratories in universities of Gansu Province, 5 China’s International Science and Technology Cooperation bases, 7 University Bases for Discipline Innovation and Talent Introduction, 2 key research bases for humanities and social sciences of the Ministry of Education, 1 Research and Incubation Center for International and Regional Studies of the Ministry of Education, 4 Research Center for International and Regional Studies of the Ministry of Education (Approved), 1 provincial 2011 synergy innovation center, 5 key research bases of humanities and social sciences in Gansu Province, 1 major research base of philosophy and social sciences of Gansu Province, 1 targeted poverty alleviation think tank of universities in Gansu Province and 4 new types of think tank of universities in Gansu Province.
Lanzhou University is one of the first universities authorized to confer bachelor, master and doctoral degrees in China.
Besides, LZU is among the first universities to establish a postdoctoral research mobile station and national educational bases for fundamental scientific research and teaching in liberal arts and science, as well as the first universities to be selected in the the National Undergraduate Innovative Test Program. Approved by the Ministry of Education, LZU has established the School of Postgraduates. LZU now hosts 100 bachelor degree programs, 45 first-level disciplines authorized to confer master’s degree and 23 first-level disciplines authorized to confer doctoral degree, 18 professional master degree authorization categories, 1 professional Ph.D degree authorization category and 19 post-doctoral mobile stations. There are 6 national talent cultivation bases, 7 national experimental centers for teaching demonstration, 2 national experimental districts for talent cultivation modes innovation, 16 national majors of distinction, 8 provincial bases for basic science research and teaching talent cultivation, 11 provincial experimental centers for teaching demonstration and 17 provincial majors of distinction. Graduates of LZU are widely acknowledged in different fields for their solid professional ground, erudition, diligence and industriousness. Since her establishment, LZU has fostered over 100,000 talents in various fields, many of whom became outstanding experts, entrepreneurs and politicians. Since 1999, 17 alumni have been elected as academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences or the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
While widely conducting research on applied studies, the scientific research in Lanzhou University excels at basic research.
In recent years, by aligning itself with the national goals and formulating its development strategy based on the distinctive features of northwest region, LZU has been vigorously cultivating new growth engines for disciplines. As a result, LZU has greatly improved its capacity to undertake national key programs and serve the local development in social and economic fields. Meanwhile, LZU has obtained a total of over 700 scientific research awards of China, Ministry and Commission and Gansu Province, and published more than 1,400 monographs, textbooks and translations. Besides, it published 1,613 papers in SCI journals with the first unit, ranking the 42th among all Chinese University in 2017; 13,010 papers in SCI journals from 2008 to 2017, with a total citation of 183,464 times and in average 14.1 on average for each, ranking the 26th among all Chinese University. In November 2018,Thomson Reuters updated the database of ESI(Essential Science Indicators). Citation times of papers of LZU ranks the 505th in the world and the 27th among Chinese universities. Moreover, a total of 12 disciplines enter the top 1% of ESI, i.e. chemistry, physics, material science, earth science, plant zoology, mathematics, engineering, biology & biochemistry, environment & ecology, clinical medicine, pharmacology & toxicology and agricutural science, among which the chemistry reaches the top 1‰. In October 2018, the Nature Publishing Group released the Nature Index 2018 based on collected data from August 1, 2017 to July 31, 2018. It is indicated that LZU has published 209 papers in 82 journals recognized by Nature Index, ranking the the 97th in the world and the 16th among Chinese universities.
LZU has established academic cooperation with 276 universities or scientific institutions from 49 countries and regions around the world. By far, LZU has jointly established 3 Confucius institutes respectively with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Georgia.
Development Orientation and Goals
Relying on its outstanding faculty and discipline construction, LZU aims to enhance talent cultivation, spur scientific innovation and society service, and boost international cooperation, making it a place outstanding personnel assembled, the western China in particular. Thus, LZU enters a new level characterized by high-level, innovation-oriented, optimized structure and coordination. Stand in the threshold of new era, LZU strives to enter the rank of first-class university program. Guided by the university motto of “Constantly Improving, Blazing Our Own Path”, LZU makes effort to deepen openness, attach importance to academic development and improve the quality of talent cultivation. Besides, it runs in accordance with the strategy of “strengthen LZU with trained personnel”and works hard to build a harmonious, developed campus with more broaden horizon to make great contributions to the socio-economic development in western China and national rejuvenation.