昆明理工大学办学历史悠久，是一所以工为主,理工结合，兼有经济、管理、文学（含艺术）、法律、教育、哲学、医学等多学科的多科性综合大学。是云南省规模最大、办学层次和类别较为齐全的重点大学,属中国著名大学之一。2005年昆明理工大学被教育部评估为全国“本科教学工作优秀学校”。
昆明理工大学现设有18个学院、1个研究生院和2个教学部，有60个本科专业。学校在全国部分省市设有30个函授站，有56个夜、函大本专科专业。学校面向全国各省、市、自治区招生，学生毕业面向全国就业。学校所有的本科专业和硕士、博士研究生专业都具有招收外国留学生学历教育的资格。学校现有4个博士后流动站、5个一级学科博士点、28个二级学科博士点、100个硕士点、23个工程硕士授权领域和1个ΜΒΑ授权点。有1个国家级重点学科、18个省部级重点学科，9个省院省校合作共建的重点学科。 现有各类学生49000余人，其中博士、硕士研究生5000余人，全日制本专科学生22000余人，成人教育学生22000余人。中国人民解放军成都军区在我校设立了“后备军官选拔培训办公室”，现有508名国防生在读。
学校拥有一支实力雄厚的教学、科研队伍，在3378名在职教职工中,具有各类高级专业技术职务人员1100人。有中国工程院院士1人及兼职两院院士16人；博士生导师73人，国家级、省级、校级重点学科带头人110人；在1727名专任教师中，具有教授、副教授职称人员791人，具有博士、硕士学位1033人；有国家级突出贡献专家7人，享受国务院政府特殊津贴、省政府特殊津贴人员86人，云南省有突出贡献的优秀人才26人，云南省中青年学术和技术带头人20人，后备人才10人，云南省技术创新人才11人 ，“百千万人才工程”国家级人选3人，第四届教育部“高校青年教师奖”1人。
学校分为莲华、新迎、白龙校区，都坐落在四季如春的昆明市区内，共占地1800亩。图书馆藏书228万册，有中外文期刊3300多种，电子图书30万册，是全国研究级文献收藏单位和西南地区有色金属文献中心。学校现有1个国家级工程研究中心、1个国家工程实验室、1个教育部工程研究中心、1个国家环保总局工程技术中心、1个教育部重点实验室、3个省级重点实验室、1个教育部共建重点实验室、2个省部级检测站、2个省级产学研联合开发中心、2个省级示范实验室，1所甲级资质的设计研究院和1所甲级资质的环评所。
2000年以来，获国家级教学成果奖3项、省部级教学成果奖20项；新增科研项目1754项，其中纵向688项，横向1066项，科研合同经费达6.26亿元；科技成果获国家发明二等奖1项，戴永年院士获云南省科学技术突出贡献奖，获省部级科技成果奖83项，已获授权专利100项；出版论著314部；发表论文6644篇，其中被SCIE收录104篇、EI收录121篇、ISTP收录98篇。主办有《昆明理工大学学报》（自然科学版及社会科学版）两种公开刊物，其中自然科学版为中国科技核心期刊，并于2005年起被美国《化学文摘》（CA）收录。
学校注重对外合作与交流，与美国、德国、法国、英国、希腊、瑞士、荷兰、日本、泰国、越南、缅甸、俄罗斯、加拿大、意大利、奥地利、葡萄牙、新西兰、澳大利亚、马来西亚、哈萨克斯坦等20多个国家的70多所高校和科研机构建立了长期稳定的友好合作交流关系。发起并参加了由中国和5个东南亚国家的11所大学组成的大湄公河次区域学术与研究联合体，是该联合体四个重点领域之一——《中小企业发展》领域的牵头院校； 为缅甸国家工业培训中心举办机电工程方向专业培训；与亚洲开发银行合作为中国和东南亚5国政府官员举办国家改革管理培训；是十年期“中日据点大学城市环境合作项目”13所中国大学之一；与澳大利亚北墨尔本高等技术学院和南昆士兰大学合作办学；与瑞典布莱金厄理工学院开展教师交换和学生交流项目；与法国巴黎高等工业大学等三所高校合作培养博士等。同时，还与国内的地方政府、高校、科研院所、企事业等100多个单位建立了广泛的合作关系，建立了一批实质性的校地、校际、校企合作项目，促进了教学、科研的发展。
昆明理工大学的发展目标是：到2010年把学校初步建设成为特色鲜明的高水平大学，成为我省和西部地区培养高层次科技人才和应用人才的重要基地、应用基础性研究和高科技研究的重要基地、科技开发与应用的重要基地、高新技术成果转化的重要基地、区域经济和社会发展的研究咨询中心。
Kunming University of Science and Technology (KUST) is located in the beautiful 'Spring City' of China - Kunming, the capital city of the mysterious and attractive Yunnan Province, the province located 'in the remote south of the colorful clouds'. As the largest university in Yunnan Province and one of the well-known universities in China, the earliest departments of KUST started admitting undergraduate students for Bachelor's degree in March 1925, and KUST became an independent public higher education institution in September 1954.In October 1999, based on a decision made by Yunnan Provincial Government and approved by the Ministry of Education of China, the former KUST and Yunnan Polytechnic University (founded in 1974) amalgamated into a new and much larger university and remained under the name of Kunming University of Science and Technology (KUST) .
With the current 21 faculties (schools), covering the fields ranging from science, engineering and economics to management, arts, law and education, KUST offers a complete list of degree programs including Ph. D., MS., MSEng., MEng, MA, BS, BSEng and BA, as well as other programs including post-doctor, preparatory, continuing education, vocational training and Chinese language training for international students.
KUST recruits students from all over China, including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. In addition, KUST is authorized to recruit international students for degree programs ranging from Bachelor to Master and Ph. D. There are over 40,000 students currently studying at KUST, and among them over 3,000 are graduate students. KUST presently offers 67 Bachelor programs, 74 Master programs and 24 Ph.D. programs. There are 4 state authorized post-doctoral stations, 1 state-level key academic subject and 18 province-level key academic subjects in KUST.
KUST has a qualified and experienced academic staff team that conducts both teaching and research. The total number of the staff is about 3,300 including academic and non-academic ones, nearly 800 of them are professors and associate professors, and over 1,600 are full-time teaching staff. Furthermore, there is one academician of China Academy of Engineering working for KUST and there are a number of academicians of China Academy of Science and of China Academy of Engineering jointly working for KUST.
KUST is composed of three campuses, namely Lianhua, Xinying and Bailong, all are in Kunming City, occupying an area of about 120 hectares. The floor area of the buildings in the 3 campuses occupy over 900,000 square meters, and many important construction projects are still in progress. The university library has about 2.2 million volumes of books and periodicals, and the library is authorized as a state-level research documents collection unit. KUST has founded a state-level engineering research center, 2 provincial and/or ministerial level test stations, 2 provincial level research and development centers, 3 provincial level key laboratories, 1 class-A design and research institute, and 1 class-A Environment Assessment Institute. There are 32 research institutes, 13 research laboratories and 13 research centers at university or faculty levels in KUST.
KUST attaches great importance to both domestic and international exchange and cooperation. It has established cooperative and exchange relationships with nearly 70 universities in over 20 different countries, and solid ties with over 100 domestic local governments, institutions of higher education and research, as well as enterprises. The research activities in KUST play an important and critical role in Yunnan Province as well as in the southwest region of China. For each of the past two years, the increment of the research fund for KUST took a proportion of over 1/2 in the total increment for all the universities in Yunnan Province.
As the goal of perspective by 2010, KUST is on its way to be developed in to a high-level university with distinctive characteristic, an important provincial and regional training base for advanced technical talents, a research and development base for both applied fundamental research and hi-tech research, an incubation base for hi-tech industrialization, and also a research and consulting center for the regional social and economical development.
Chief Heads of KUST:
President: Prof. ZHOU Rong
Dean, School of Graduate Studies: Prof. WANG Hua
Chief Librarian: Prof. ZHANG Zhonghua
Director, Division of Teaching Administration: Prof. LU Jiansheng
Director, Division of Research Administration: Prof. SHEN Lizhong
Director, Division of International Cooperation: Prof. DENG Gang
Important Statistics:
Total Area of 3 Campuses: 120 hectares
Floor Area: 900,000 square meters
Library Collections: 2.2 million volumes
Faculty Members: 3.3 thousand
Student Number: 40 thousand
