This university is one of the famous universities with large scale and international influence in China, including arts, law, science, engineering, agriculture and medicine.

In 1950s, the departments were adjusted, and some important and distinctive departments such as aviation, civil engineering, law and railway under Yunnan University were set aside and merged into Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sichuan University, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Changsha Railway Institute and other universities at that time. The universities of industry, medicine and agriculture were established independently and gradually developed into today's universities such as Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming Medical University, Yunnan Agricultural University and Southwest Forestry University. From 65438 to 0958, Yunnan University was placed under the management of Yunnan Province by the Central Ministry of Higher Education.

65438-0978 Yunnan University was identified as one of the 88 key universities in China by the State Council. After the reform and opening up, Yunnan University has made great progress. 1996 was listed in the first batch of national "2 1 1 project" key construction universities, in 2006, in 5438+0, in 2004, it became the key construction university of the Ministry of Education and the Yunnan Provincial People's Government, and in 2006, the undergraduate teaching level was evaluated.

20 12 became the implementing agency of "the basic capacity building project of central and western universities" and "the comprehensive strength improvement project of central and western universities", 20 16 became the implementing agency of "one province, one school project" and 20 17 became one of the first 42 first-class universities in China. In 20 18, it ranked among the top universities in the central and western regions 14, which are "Ministry-oriented and jointly built by ministries and provinces".