Founded in 1909, the university provides programs for undergraduate, graduate students on four campuses—three in Lanzhou city centre and one in Yuzhong County, about 30 miles away from the main campus. Total enrolment compromises of approximately 20,000 undergraduates, 10,572 graduates, 2,559 doctoral students, and about 700 registered international students from 64 countries and regions across 5 continents.[5][6] Undergraduate students study at the Yuzhong campus.
History
Lanzhou University's history traces back to 1909 when its predecessor, the Gansu School of Law and Politics, was founded. The School of Law and Politics became the Sun Yat-senUniversity of Lanzhou in 1928 and from 1945, the National Lanzhou University. After 1949, it went by the name Lanzhou University. It was designated one of China's 14 key universities.[7][8]
In 1932 the Lanzhou Medical College and its affiliated hospital were founded.[9]
In 2002 the Gansu Grassland Ecology Research Institute, and in 2004 the Lanzhou Medical College were incorporated into Lanzhou University.[7]
Lanzhou University has three primary laboratories and analytical testing facility sanctioned by the Chinese Ministry of Education and deemed as high importance to the state.
Laboratory of Arid Agroecology
The laboratory was founded in 1991 under ratification of the Planning Commission of China and engaged in arid agriculture ecology research. The Laboratory of Arid Agroecology is the only lab engaged in arid agriculture ecology research under the Chinese Ministry of Education. The lab has been highly developed on the basis of the authorization to confer bachelor, masters, doctorate and post-doctoral degrees through the financial aid of the World Bank loan.
Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry
The Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry was one of the first state key laboratories ratified by Planning Commission of China. It was founded in December 1987, open to visiting scholars and scientists from both within China and abroad. It is one primary laboratories to cultivate talents for organic chemistry. The researches of the laboratory focus on organic molecular chemistry of special function, especially in the field of basic research on active organic molecules.
Open Laboratory of Applied Magnetism
Created in 1993 by the Chinese Ministry of Education, this is an open laboratory conducting research in the field of Applied Magnetism. The lab is chiefly engaged in studies on applications of perpendicular magnetic recording. The laboratory also conducts research and development on new applied magnetic materials which can be used for commercial applications. Mossbauer spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resource spin echo spectroscopy and general magnetic testing media are used to study magnetic materials' microscopic structure and general magnetic behavior. The laboratory is equipped with major facilities including a vibrating sample magnetometer, high pressure mossbauer spectroscope and magnetron sputtering system, along with many others. The lab also serves as a key resource for research in materials science and condensed matter physics.
The laboratory has 24 professional researchers and technicians, among who are 4 doctoral advisers.
Analytical Testing Center
Financed by the first loan issued by the World Bank to develop universities, construction on this center began in 1982. It contains more than 20 major instruments and devices including a High-Resolution Mass Spectrometer, Infrared Spectrometer, X-Ray Quadrupole Diffractometer, Laser Raman Spectrometer, FT-IR Spectrometer, and others. The center is primarily engaged in the determination and analysis of the structure of matter. It also conducts graduate students' experiments which leads to the conferring of Master's and Ph.D. degrees. A testing service is available to the public.
Established by the State Technology Superintendency in 1992, it is the approved lab for the inspection of imported and exported chemical and mining products.
Campus
Lanzhou University
Lanzhou University has two campuses. The oldest campus is located in the center of Lanzhou (Chengguan District), whereas the main campus is located in Yuzhong County.[11] The One Belt and One Road campus, north of Lanzhou is under construction.
There are 6 National Bases for the Training of Researching and Teaching personnel for Fundamental Disciplines. The University operates an additional 35 institutes along with 1 national key Laboratory of the Applied Organic and 3 key laboratories of Arid and Grassland Ecology, West China Environment, Magnetism and Magnetic Materials of the Ministry of Education, a key laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystem of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Lanzhou University was one of the Project 985 universities in China to appear in the world’s top 500 universities in the global university ranking in 2007, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities.[19] Lanzhou University is one of the top universities in China in terms of contributions to academic publications in international journals frequently cited by ongoing research from around the world, ranking the 26th among all Chinese Universities in number of citations per paper from 2008 to 2017.[7]
In 2023, the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) ranked Lanzhou University at 201-300th globally.[20] From the same rankings by subjects, "Chemistry" and "Atmospheric Science" subjects were ranked in the global top 100.[21][22]
The U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking 2022-2023 ranked Lanzhou as 540th in the world, 112nd in Asia and 54th in China.[23] It also ranks globally at 188th in "Agricultural Science", at 123rd in "Chemical Engineering", at 150th in "Chemistry", at 157th in "Energy and Fuels", at 403rd in "Engineering", at 304th in "Environment/Ecology", at 167th in "Geoscience", at 150th in "Material Science", 164th in "Mathematics", at 131st in "Nanoscience and Nanotechnology", at 404th in "Physics", and at 244th in "Plant and Animal Science" according to the same ranking.[23]
^Brilliant Legend Studio_飞煌工作室_http://www.fhuang.com. "兰州大学党委宣传部 - 规章制度≡≡≡". Xcb.lzu.edu.cn. Archived from the original on July 14, 2007. Retrieved November 8, 2012.
