In fact, at the beginning of the merger of Yanbei Normal University and three junior colleges, the school wanted to change its name to Datong University. After all, it is normal for the school to be called Datong University, but it was opposed by Fudan University.

Fudan University has the same objection as Sichuan University, because Datong University was once a university in Shanghai and one of its predecessors, so Fudan University cannot allow two universities located in Shanxi to be named Datong University. Finally, Shanxi Datong University compromised and added the word Shanxi to its name, which was very humiliating.

Shanxi Datong University, referred to as "Datong University" or "Datong University", is located in the famous historical and cultural city of Datong. It is a multi-disciplinary university in Shanxi Province, the first batch of pilot universities of "Excellent Doctoral Education and Training Plan" in China, and the only hall city in Shanxi Province (Shanxi Provincial Department of Education and Datong Municipal People's Government). Selected into the School Planning and Construction Development Center of the Ministry of Education, the National College Students' Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program, and so on.

The first batch of application-oriented transformation pilot universities in Shanxi Province, the first batch of grass-roots legislative contact points of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress, the research and consultation base of local legislation in the city, the cooperative college of Phoenix Education's "Innovative Application Demonstration Base of Digital Media Production and Education in Colleges and Universities" project, the main member of the National Universities of Applied Sciences (College) Alliance, the Shanxi Teachers' Education Alliance, the Shanxi Higher Medical Education Resource Alliance and the "Wu Da Zhang" College Education Alliance, and the founding member of the New Energy Industry and Technology Research Institute of Datong Quanke Alliance.

The history of Datong University in Shanxi can be traced back to 1950s. Approved by the Ministry of Education in March 2006, it was formed by the merger of the former Yanbei Normal College, Datong Medical College, Datong Vocational and Technical College and Shanxi Industrial Vocational and Technical College. In May, 20 18, with the approval of the State Council Academic Degrees Committee, the school became a master's degree awarding unit.