The university covers an area of 1.5 square kilometer, with 2 campuses, 17 colleges, 2 directly-affiliated hospitals, and 8 indirectly-affiliated ones all over the province. Dali University offers 62 undergraduate programs, 6 first-level academic master degree programs, 33 second-level  academic master degree programs and 6 professional master degree programs. There are more than 17000 full-time students and 30000 part-time students enrolled in Dali University. Meanwhile, among 1069 full-time teachers, there are 493 entitled associate professors or above and 145 professors,  and over 700 teachers with master degree or above. More than 70 researchers and specialists were funded, such as Changjiang scholars program, National Talents and Yunling scholar and so on, which are some top awards for excellent experts in China.

    Dali University is actively involved in international co-operation and exchange, sticking to running the university into an international one. As one of the first four “Going Out” pilot institutions in Yunnan Province, the university has established the relationship of educational exchange and cooperation with 44 universities from 19 countries and regions. Dali University has been  approved to be the Provincial Training base for the International Applied Talents, and built the RUPP-DHY Chinese Center and also been running the Chinese Program in Cambodia for many years. Dali University has been granted to accept the global Confucius Scholarship candidates and built the Confucius Institute in Phranakhon Rajabhat University, Thailand in 2017. According to the latest statistic by Chinese MOE, Dali University ranks 10th in terms of the number of international undergraduates all over the country, and first in the western Chinese higher institutes. In the year of 2018, Dali University ranked 16th in terms of students’ internationalization on ShanghaiRanking by the international students portion of 6.97%.

    Dali University will continue to serve the western part of Yunnan, and the whole province of Yunnan and surrounding provinces, along with the south and southeast of Asia. Adhering to the concept of   Converging all cultures to shape the University's Spirit and the motto of Wide Leaning for Truth, Great Virtue for Perfection, Dali University has been accelerating its process of the educational modernization, informationalization and internationalization, and striving to realize the doctorate program authorization. By deepening the comprehensive reform roundly and promoting the teaching quality and management level continuously, Dali University is working on the goal to make the university a high-level and comprehensive regional institute, being top in Yunnan, well-known in China and influential among South and Southeast Asia.