Tianshui Normal University was founded in 1959. In 2000, it was upgraded from Tianshui Teachers College to Tianshui Normal University. In 2013, it was awarded as a master's degree awarding unit. In 2015, it was titled as the first batch of pilot and development pilot institutions in Gansu Province.  In 2018, it was listed as a master's degree awarding unit by the State Council's Degree Office.In 2022, it was identified as a doctoral degree construction unit and key supporting university of teacher education cooperation plan for the Ministry of Education. In January 2023, rename of TianShui Normal University was included in the "14th Five -Year Plan" of Gansu Province.

[Educational Ideas and Goals] The university adheres to the spirit of "Survival in Difficulties, and Development in Struggle", based on its reality, keeping pace with the development of higher education in the new era, and initially Four major application-oriented professional groups have been formed: teacher education, engineering technology, business management, and culture, sports and arts. It has clearly defined the university's positioning of being based in southeast GanSu, serving Gansu Province, and moving toward the whole country. It also proactively serves national strategies and local needs, actively accepts lead of the party committee and government and serve regional economic and social development . The running goal of university is to build a regional high-level application-oriented university with distinctive normal characteristics.

[Department Settings] The university consists of 1 college, 18 schools, and 64 teaching departments.

[University Conditions] The university has a collection of 2.79 million books, 1,174 Chinese and foreign journals, and 30 databases; the value of teaching equipment is 303 million yuan, and fixed assets are 1.041 billion yuan.

[Teaching Staff] The university currently has 1,417 faculty members, including 416 teachers with senior professional and technical positions, and 793 teachers with master's degrees or above. The teaching staff includes 1 Huang Danian-style teaching team, 12 provincial teaching teams. There are 12 teachers awarded as national outstanding teachers, national advanced workers, experts enjoying special allowances from the State Council, "BaoGang Education Fund Excellent Teachers", and New Century Excellent Talents of the Ministry of Education. There are 100 teachers titled as leading talents in Gansu Province, outstanding experts, FeiTian scholars, model teachers, gardener award winners, famous  teachers, four batches of talents, young teacher talent award winners, and candidates for Longyuan youth innovative talent support plan.

[Discipline and Major] The university has two first-class characteristic disciplines of Gansu Province: Chinese history and ecology, and 8 provincial disciplines including Chinese language and literature, Chinese history, ecology, electronic science and technology, chemistry, Marxist theory, education and mathematics. There are 3 master's degree authorized first-level disciplines (Chinese language and literature, Marxist theory, chemistry), covering 12 second-level disciplines, and 6 professional degree authorized categories (Master of Education, Master of Electronic Information, Master of Mechanical Engineering, Master of Physical Education, Master of Biology and Master of Medicine, Master of Museum). There are 63 undergraduate majors including 5 national-level first-class undergraduate major construction sites, 2 characteristic major construction sites, 15 provincial-level first-class undergraduate major construction sites, and 11 characteristic major construction sites). There are currently 1 national first-class undergraduate course, 37 provincial first-class undergraduate courses, 22 quality courses, and 2 quality resource sharing courses.

[Talent training] The university enrolls students from 26 provinces (cities, districts) across the country. It currently has 17,108 full-time undergraduate students and above, including 15,858 undergraduates and 1,250 graduate students. It has trained hundreds of thousands of high-quality applied talents, mainly basic education teachers, for the society, and has been generally recognized by society.

The university has built 1 Gansu Province Chinese Excellent Traditional Culture Inheritance Base and 7 Gansu Province College Experimental Teaching Demonstration Centers. In the past three years, students have won more than 100 national awards and more than 800 provincial awards in various professional competitions, especially in the National College Student Mathematics Competition (Gansu Division), ranking first among provincial universities for six consecutive years. ; The passing rate of the National Legal Professional Qualification Examination for the law major ranks among the top universities in the province for three consecutive years; the women's hockey team has won the "Hong'ao Cup" National College Hockey Championship for six consecutive years; the postgraduate entrance examination rate ranks the best among similar universities in the province.

[Scientific Research] The university has 1 National and Regional Research Center of the Ministry of Education, 1 Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education, 14 provincial scientific research institutions, 1 academician workstation, and 1 university science park. Together with Tianshui Huatian Electronics Group, Dongxu Group, Tianrui Heavy Industry and other enterprises and institutions, university has jointly established more than 10 platforms including "Gansu University Integrated Circuit Industry Development Research Institute" and "Optoelectronic Display Materials Research Institute" to tackle technical bottlenecks and serve the industry development; established two international cooperation platforms, the "Caucasus Region Research Center" and the "China-Belarus Ecological and Environmental Research Institute", to carry out research in the fields of culture, ecology, and environment around the "Belt and Road".

The university has won 5 national scientific research awards. In the past five years, it has won a total of 45 Gansu Provincial Social Science Achievement Awards, Natural Science Awards, and Science and Technology Progress Awards, including 7 first prizes and 14 second prizes; a total of 1,065 scientific research projects at all levels and types have been approved, including national-level 49 projects, 149 at the provincial (ministerial) level; published 140 academic monographs, 233 authorized patents; published more than 2,100 papers in domestic and foreign academic journals, including more than 400 SCI, CSSCI source journals. The academic journal "Journal of Tianshui Normal University" has been awarded the title of "National Outstanding Social Science Journal" many times, and the "Longyou Cultural Research" column has been awarded the title of "National Excellent Social Science Journal Column" many times.

[Exchange and Cooperation] The university adheres to open education and has established cooperative relationships with more than 120 well-known universities, enterprises, institutions and local governments at home and abroad. Established counterpart assistance and cooperative relations with more than 10 universities such as Xi'an Jiaotong University, Lanzhou University, Tianjin Normal University, and Shaanxi Normal University; established friendly cooperative relations with more than 20 universities in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Germany and other countries, and carried out Various forms of exchanges and cooperation; it has recruited foreign students since 2003 and has trained more than 200 international students from 21 countries. Relying on the rural talent education and training base in Gansu Province, a total of more than 6,000 new rural skilled talents have been trained for the region.

In 2005, it was awarded the honorary title of "National Civilized Unit" by the Central Civilization Committee. In 2018, it was awarded the honorary title of the first batch of provincial-level civilized campuses.