Kunming Metallurgical Vocational University is a public undergraduate-level vocational college. Its predecessor was the Gejiu Mining Technical School of Yunnan Province, which was founded in 1952. In 1954, it moved to Kunming and was renamed Kunming Nonferrous Metals Industrial School. In 1958, it was renamed Kunming Metallurgical Industrial School. In 1978, it opened a junior college to recruit junior college classes in mining and surveying. In 1980, it was identified as a national key technical secondary school, and in 1985 it was upgraded to College, renamed as Yunnan Mining and Metallurgical College; in 1992, renamed as Kunming Metallurgical College; in 2004, Kunming Metallurgical College, Yunnan Building Materials Industry School, and Yunnan Circulation Economics School merged to form the new Kunming Metallurgical College A junior college, and was rated as excellent in the evaluation of the talent training level of higher vocational colleges across the country; it became a national model higher vocational college in 2011, and was recognized as a national high-quality junior college and higher vocational college in 2019. From 2019 to 2024, it was selected as the first The school was built in the first phase of the National "Double High Plan" and passed the acceptance inspection with "excellence". It was selected as a construction unit of the second phase of the National "Double High Plan" in 2025. In February 2026, the Ministry of Education approved the establishment of Kunming Metallurgical Vocational University based on Kunming Metallurgical College.
The school was awarded the National Advanced Unit for Vocational Education, the First National Excellent Vocational Education School of Huang Yanpei, and the National Outstanding Contribution Award for Skilled Talent Cultivation. It has jumped to 19th in the comprehensive competitiveness rankings of China's higher vocational colleges in 2025, ranking 4th in the western region and 9th among science and engineering higher vocational colleges nationwide.
In the great journey of national development and changes of the times, the school has gone through several name changes and school site changes, always adhering to the original intention of vocational education, actively adapting to the national metallurgical industry and Yunnan's economic and social development in different periods, and cultivating more than 140,000 high-quality technical and technical talents who have taken root in the front lines of production, construction, and services inside and outside the province.
The conditions for running schools are excellent. The school covers a total area of 1,465.02 acres, with a beautiful campus environment and a strong engineering culture; its teaching equipment and internship training base are at the leading level. It has a high-level teaching team that is “led by famous teachers, integrated with dual teachers, and has a reasonable structure”. There are 1 “National University Huang Danian-style Teacher Team”, 2 national-level teaching teams, 2 national-level vocational education teacher teaching innovation teams, 2 national-level skill master studios and 4 provincial-level vocational education teacher teaching innovation teams. A large number of national teaching teachers, young and middle-aged experts who have made outstanding contributions to the “National Hundreds and Thousands of Talents Project”, leading talents in scientific and technological innovation of the national “High-level Talent Support Plan”, experts with national and provincial subsidies, etc. The school has established a number of high-quality teaching resources such as national-level quality courses, resource sharing courses, ideological and political demonstration courses, vocational education teaching resource library and national planned teaching materials, and was awarded the "Top 50 Teaching Resources in Higher Vocational Colleges". He took the lead in building a national teaching resource library for non-ferrous metallurgy and engineering measurement technology, and built the country's first national-level virtual simulation training base for non-ferrous metallurgy. Take the lead in formulating 6 professional national standards in 2 major categories: energy power and materials, resources environment and safety.
Distinctive professional features. With engineering as the main body, metallurgy as the specialty, and non-ferrous metals as the focus, the school focuses on the development needs of new productive forces and has established 2 national-level professional groups, 2 provincial-level high-level professional groups, and 5 school-level advantageous and characteristic professional groups, covering 12 major categories. According to the comprehensive competitiveness evaluation results of higher vocational majors and high-level professional groups in 2025, in the evaluation of professional groups, professional categories, professional categories and professional classifications, the school ranks first in the country in 7 items and is at a leading level. The school is a national training base for high-skilled talents in the metallurgical industry, a national demonstration base for training technical and skilled talents in the metallurgical industry, and a winner of the Outstanding Contribution Award for Cultivation of Skilled Talents in the Non-ferrous Metals Industry. The enrollment of non-ferrous metal-related majors accounts for 50% of the total enrollment of non-ferrous metal-related majors in similar higher vocational schools across the country. It has become an important force supporting regional economic development and the development of the national non-ferrous metallurgical industry.
The effect of educating people is remarkable. Implementing the integrated talent training model of "job-course competition, certification and creation", creating the "Skills Culture Month" activity brand, it was awarded the "Revitalization Cup" National Youth Vocational Skills Competition Yunnan Provincial Training Base, established a school, provincial and national three-level skills competition system, hosted the National Vocational College Skills Competition higher vocational group competition for many times, and won the "National Vocational College Skills Competition Outstanding Contribution Award". In national and provincial skills competitions, the number and ranking of awards won by individual students and groups are at the leading level among similar institutions. Build a professional dynamic adjustment mechanism that links the three industries of "industry + profession + employment", and fully integrate the talent supply side and the industrial demand side.
The integration of industry and education is profound. The school has 2 national and provincial collaborative innovation centers for applied technology, 2 provincial-level grassroots expert workstations, 1 provincial-level maker space, 1 provincial-level academician expert workstation and a provincial-level digital twin international joint R&D center for green new energy energy storage materials industry chain. As a "Modern Apprenticeship" unit of the Ministry of Education, it has carried out "integrated" school-enterprise cooperation with Fortune 500 companies such as Chinalco, Baoshan Iron and Steel, JD.com, and leading enterprises in Yunnan to create a high-quality training platform for technical and skilled talents. He took the lead in establishing the "High Quality Development Alliance of Higher Vocational Colleges in the Western Frontier Region", the Yunnan Metallurgical and Mining Vocational Education Group, the Yunnan Green Building Vocational Education Group, and the Yunnan New Business Vocational Education Alliance. He initiated the establishment of a ministry-provincial industry-education integration community for the nonferrous metal industry in Yunnan Province, and took the lead in the establishment of 13 Yunnan Province industry-education integration communities and 1 city-wide industry-education consortium, bringing together the superior resources of schools and enterprises for collaborative innovation. Construct an industrial college paradigm of "1 professional group + 1 chain owner enterprise + N ecological enterprises" to form an industrial service matrix that closely matches development needs. It has formed three core technology innovation systems in the field of nonferrous metallurgy, promoted industry process innovation, cost reduction and efficiency improvement, and achieved deep integration of scientific research innovation and industrial application. It won the second prize of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Science and Technology Award and 11 scientific and technological achievement awards.
The service support is strong. The school is a national key construction base for vocational education teacher training and training, a national "double-qualified" teacher training and training base, and a national "education, science, culture, health, sports and industry craftsman college" construction unit. Schools and enterprises have jointly built multiple examination and training bases to form a mature non-academic training and education system. The school's graduates' destination implementation rate has always been at the leading level among similar institutions, and it has been awarded the title of "National Advanced Group for Employment of Graduates from General Colleges and Universities" and "Top 50 National Graduates with Typical Employment Experience". Actively assisting rural revitalization and regional economic and social development, it was selected as an "Excellent School for Talent Cultivation" and "Excellent School for Service and Contribution" (ranked first in Yunnan Province) in China's annual vocational education quality report.
International exchanges are extensive. "Introducing" high-quality educational resources has achieved positive results in running schools, and it has cooperated with high-quality foreign universities such as Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in Germany, the Belarusian National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and St. Clair College in Canada to organize 6 Sino-foreign cooperative education projects. Vocational education goes overseas to serve the “One Belt and One Road” initiative and shows new responsibilities for Lancang-Mekong vocational education. There are currently overseas school-running projects such as the Huagang Mining Chinese Workshop in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Lanmei Workshop (Laos Potassium International Training Center), China-Kenya College of Architectural Engineering, and the China-Cambodia “Belt and Road” E-commerce Valley Base, creating a new brand and new paradigm for Yunnan’s vocational education overseas. Developed and launched nearly 70 international professional standard teaching resources and 15 bilingual (Chinese, English) and trilingual (Chinese, English, Indonesian) international textbooks. Continuously expand the recruitment of international students from Laos, Vietnam and other countries along the “Belt and Road”. It has been ranked among the top 50 most influential higher vocational colleges in the world, one of the top 50 most influential vocational colleges in the Asia-Pacific, a five-star institution in the Asia-Pacific Vocational College Influence Index, and was selected as the first batch of member units of the World Vocational and Technical Education Development Alliance.
Facing the future, the school will keep in mind its mission of educating people for the party and the country, implement the fundamental task of cultivating people with moral character, adhere to the positioning of vocational education types, take serving the national strategy and Yunnan's economic and social development as its own responsibility, deepen the connotation construction, strengthen characteristic development, and strive to build a high-level vocational undergraduate university with engineering as the main body, metallurgy as the feature, and non-ferrous metals as the focus, based in Yunnan, facing the whole country, radiating to South Asia and Southeast Asia, and making new and greater contributions to industrial transformation and upgrading and high-quality development.
(Updated March 2026)
