Lanzhou University is a national key university directly under the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Ministry of Education. It is jointly established by the State Bureau of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and the Ministry of Education, and ranks among the "Double First Class", "985 Project" and "21/Project". The school was founded in 1909, and its predecessor was Gansu Law and Politics School established during the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty. 1928 extended to Lanzhou Sun Yat-sen University; 1946 was named National Lanzhou University. In 2002 and 2004, the former Gansu Grassland Ecology Institute and Lanzhou Medical College were merged into Lanzhou University.