Founded in 1932, it was originally named Guangxi Normal Specialized Post-Secondary College, and was one of the early normal colleges in modern China. From 1943-1978, it was the only college in Guangxi offering a Bachelor’s degree in Teacher Education. In 1983, it was upgraded to a university. So far, it has cultivated for the country, and especially for Guangxi, more than 300,000 teachers and other talents. In 2012, when Liu Yandong, the State Councilor, visited the university, she encouraged it to be a first-class university with distinctive features. 

The University offers degrees to students at the Undergraduate, Graduate, and Doctoral levels, covering disciplines of philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, agricultural science, management, medicine and arts.

The University also has a large and diverse student population, including 26,831 undergraduate students, 6,386 graduate students, 171 Ph.D. candidates, over 1,600 international students under various programs, and more than 16,000 correspondence and visiting students. 

The University has three campuses: Wangcheng Campus, Yucai Campus and Yanshan Campus, covering a total area of 300 hectares.

Located in downtown Guilin, and with a history of 700 years, Wangcheng Campus used to be a very famous prince’s palace in the Ming Dynasty. It was also the earliest cultural and educational center in Guangxi and is an important symbol of the history and culture of Guilin. With ancient trees towering to the sky, which create a quiet and elegant atmosphere, Wangcheng Campus is the only campus in China that enjoys the status of being a national 5-A tourist attraction.

Yucai Campus is located near the National Hi-Tech Development Area in Guilin. It has educated more than ten thousand excellent personnel for Vietnam. Considering the long history of cooperation between the University and Vietnam, the Vietnam Memorial School was built on its original site with the purpose of remembering history and enlightening future generations. Many valuable materials of the Chinese Language School, the Chinese Branch of the Vietnamese Army School，the Yucai School and the September-Second School are displayed to show the spirit of Vietnamese students who have studied here and the long-standing friendship between China and Vietnam.

Yanshan Campus is located in the Education Zone of Guilin, with the beautiful Xiangsi River meandering through it. It was officially put into use in October 2007, and is now gradually becoming a garden-like, modern and information-based campus. It is an ideal place for learning, teaching and research, and provides a broader space for the future development of the university. 

Guangxi Normal University is known for having a strong reputation of success and significant influence internationally. It has established cooperative and exchange relations with over 200 universities and institutions of higher learning in more than 40 different countries and regions.

The University also has the authority to receive international students under the “Chinese Government Scholarship" awarded by China’s Ministry of Education, the “Confucius Institute Scholarship” by Confucius Institute Headquarters (Han Ban), and the “ASEAN Scholarship” by Guangxi Provincial Government. Currently, it is the only university in Guangxi approved by China’s Ministry of Education to be a Demonstration Base for foreigners studying in China, as well as by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office under the State Council to be a Chinese language education base.

In the past 10 years or so, it has increasingly worked to expand its enrollment of international students and now more than 15,000 overseas students have come here to further their studies by long or short-term education programs. The educational degrees on offer for international students have been expanded to include BA, MA and PhD studies, while the subjects have been extended from Chinese language and culture to tourism management, economics, law, computer science, physical education, design, music, education, environmentalism, politics, foreign languages, and more.

The University has worked together to set up 3 Confucius Institutes with the Prince of Songkla University in Thailand, the Malang National University in Indonesia, and the Hanoi University in Vietnam respectively. It has attached great importance to ASEAN studies and has set up the “ASEAN Education Research Institute”, “Vietnam Research Center”, “Indonesian Culture Center”, and “Thai Culture Center”. It has sponsored regular ASEAN education seminars and published a series of influential academic monographs.