The disciplines of Lanzhou University covers 12 fields in total, including science, technology, law, agriculture, literature, history, economics, philosophy, management, medical and pedagogy. Now the university has 8 national-level key disciplines, 2 national level developing disciplines, and 35 provincial-level disciplines. The University operates the key laboratory of Applied Organic and 6 laboratories of Arid and Grassland Ecology, West China Environment, Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, Arid and Agro-ecology, Semi-Arid Climate Change of the Ministry of Education, a key laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystem of the Ministry of Agriculture. In addition, there are 2 Key Open Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems under the ministry of Agriculture, 2 Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, 4 Engineering Research Center under the Ministry of Education, and 1 China-Germany Research Center under the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Lanzhou University is outstanding in the basic theoretical research and has made great achievements in the applied researches. Recently, the university has set new goals on pursuing national prominence based on Northwestern characteristics by undertaking national level projects, developing new disciplinary potentials and serving for the Gansu regional economic and social development. Over 700 awards of national, provincial and ministry levels have been conferred to Lanzhou University, and more than 1400 books and publications have been released. According to the statistics, Lanzhou University ranks one of the top universities which have published the largest amount of essays and of the highest citation rate. In recent years, the number of the essays published and cited by SCI takes the leading ranks of No.39 and No.24 among the Chinese higher institutions respectively.
Ever since the fall of 1987, Lanzhou University has been entitled to accept international students, among the universities authorized by the Ministry of Education. In 2002, the School of International Cultural Exchange was established to be responsible for the admission, instruction and the management of international students. In April.2008, Lanzhou University has been appointed as one of the higher institutions which are entitled to independently enroll degree program international students; the international student education has been developing tremendously. So far over 500 international students from 52 countries are studying on our campus under various kinds of programs.