Tianshui normal university was founded on 1959. In 2000, it was upgraded from tianshui normal university to tianshui normal university. 20 13 began to train graduate students in education. 20 15 was listed as the first batch of pilot institutions for transformation and development in Gansu Province, and 20 18 was listed as a master's degree awarding unit by the State Council Academic Degree Office. In 2022, it was identified as a doctoral degree project construction unit and a key support institution for the collaborative quality improvement plan of normal education of the Ministry of Education.

Adhering to the motto of "Mingde, Xinmin and Perfection" and the spirit of "Survival in Dilemma and Development in Struggle", the school has initially formed four application-oriented professional groups, namely, normal education, engineering technology, business administration, culture, physical education and art, based on its own reality and keeping pace with the development of higher education in the new era, and determined the school-running goal of building a regional high-level application-oriented university with distinctive normal characteristics.