Dalian University for Nationalities, located in Jinzhou District, Dalian, is a university directly under the State Ethnic Affairs Commission and the central ministries and commissions. It was founded by the Ministry of Education of People's Republic of China (PRC), the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the China Academy of Sciences, the Liaoning Provincial People's Government and the Dalian Municipal People's Government. It is a comprehensive national higher education institution focusing on engineering and applied disciplines. It has successively been selected into the national education system reform pilot school, the first batch of national college English teaching reform demonstration schools, the first batch of national graduate employment typical experience universities, and the first batch of new engineering research and practice projects of the Ministry of Education, with Dalian University of Technology supporting Dalian Minzu University and CDIO engineering education alliance members.

The school was established in 1984, enrolled in 1993 and formally established in 1997. In 2006, it was jointly established by the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the Liaoning Provincial Government and the Dalian Municipal Government.