临沂大学是国家设立、山东省政府直属管理的综合性大学，“山东省特色名校工程”重点建设大学。学校坐落在风景秀美、人文荟萃的历史文化名城、商贸物流之都、滨水生态之城、红色旅游城市、全国文明城市山东省临沂市。前身是1941年由中共滨海区委和抗大一分校共同创建的滨海建国学院。在70多年的办学历程中，学校始终秉承“实”的校风和“明义、锐思、弘毅、致远”的校训，不断解放思想，开拓创新，实现了超常规跨越式发展，培养毕业生25万人。
学校现设有20个二级学院、9个科研院所、2个分校，本科专业80个，涵盖文学、理学、工学、艺术学、管理学、教育学、法学、农学、经济学、历史学等10大学科门类。学校面向全国招生，现有全日制在校生39000余人，教职工2700余人，其中教授、副教授700余人，博士、硕士1300余人，硕士、博士研究生导师110余人。
学校以“全国知名、区域特色鲜明的创新创业型大学”为奋斗目标。聚力定位塑校，确立科学发展愿景；聚力教学立校，创新人才培养机制；聚力科研强校，提升自主创新能力；聚力服务荣校，实现校地互动发展；聚力人才兴校，提升师资队伍水平；聚力开放亮校，努力拓展国际视野；聚力文化铸校，彰显特色办学精神；聚力改革活校，强化体制机制保障。努力培养“基础理论扎实，富有创新精神和创业能力，具有沂蒙精神特质和国际视野的高素质应用型人才”。
学校校园由美国EDSA公司融合了美国斯坦福大学校园规划理念设计而成，校园环境优雅，学术底蕴浓厚。学校校舍面积152万平方米，其中图书馆、实验中心、艺术中心、体育中心是目前国内高校建筑面积最大的楼体之一。学校教学科研仪器设备总值2.8亿元，馆藏纸质图书430余万册，电子图书75余万种，电子期刊3.5余万种，电子图书和电子期刊达1.4余万GB，建成了国内较为先进的数字化校园系统。
学校与美国、英国、俄罗斯、韩国、日本、法国、印度等国家的60多所高校建立了友好合作关系，建有中外合作高尔夫学院、软件学院、水原大学临沂研究生院、水原科学大学美容美发教育中心等机构，开展中外合作办学项目9个。学校设立的汉学、中国武术、中国民族乐器、中国画、中国书法、国际经济与贸易、翻译学、艺术设计、工商管理、新闻学等专业招收国外留学生。
Linyi University (called LYU hereafter) is a comprehensive state-run university in Shandong Province. The predecessor of LYU is the Coastal Nation- Founding Institute, co- established by CPC Coastal District Committee and the first branch of Chinese People’s Anti-Japanese Military and Political College in 1941. Guided by Yimeng Spirits, LYU has achieved a leap-forward development with over 200,000 graduates in over 70 years who make great contributions to Shandong province and the nation. On November 26, 2010, the university was renamed Linyi University by the Ministry of Education.
Currently, the university has 19 colleges, 9 scientific and research institutions, 2 branch campuses and one affiliated high school. It offers a total of 77 undergraduate degree programs which cover 10 scholarly disciplines: literature, law, economics, history, education, management, science, engineering, agriculture and arts. The university enrolls the students from all over the country and now has an enrollment of over 39,000 full-time students and more than 2,700 full-time teachers, 722 of whom are professors or associate professors, 1250 have gained doctoral or master’s degrees and over 80 are tutors of masters and doctors. There are nine provincial key disciplines, 5 provincial key laboratories, 3 provincial key research base of humanity and social sciences, 3 provincial experimental teaching demonstration centers now in the university. The total value of teaching equipment is up to 250 million yuan and the library owns 4,200 thousand paper books. An advanced digital campus system has been established in the university which ranks first in similar universities.
The university deepens the reform of education, and closely integrated with the local practical situation in Linyi, innovatively implements " A system with two branches" application-oriented cultivating model to make students highly-qualified applied talents with Yimeng spirits and international perspective. In particular, the implementation of “3-3-3-6” project helps to achieve the combination of moral, intellectual, aesthetic and physical education hence the university has been invited to make typical speeches in national conferences for many times to share the experience. The Museum of LYU History won the first prize in the Outstanding Achievement Award of the National Campus Culture Construction. In the latest five years, the university has received two national teaching achievement awards, 18 provincial teaching achievement awards and has established two national leading specialties, 5 provincial leading specialties, 15 courses as the excellent provincial courses and bilingual teaching demonstration courses in Shandong. Meanwhile, the teaching quality has been improving continuously, the employment rate of the graduates ranked second among provincial universities in these two years.
Adhering to the principle of “Serving Yimeng”, the university vigorously promote production-study-research combination. A regional economic collaborative innovation center and cultural heritage collaborative innovation center have been established to form strategic partnerships with over 100 enterprises and local governments hence improve the scientific and innovative abilities. In these five years, a total of 1550 research projects have been made including 36 National Natural Science Foundation and the National Social Science Fund Project. 411 research awards at all levels have been obtained. What’s more, nearly 100 scientific and technological achievements have been transferred to the local regions. A large number of research achievements have been applied in local area to make more contributions to the construction of regional innovative system.
The university has established cooperative relationships with higher education institutions from 60 countries including the U.S., the U.K., Korea, Japan etc.to exchange students, mutually recognize credits as well as co-educate undergraduates and postgraduates. In addition, co-established institutions have been set up in LYU, such as Co-operative Golf School, Software School, Linyi Graduate School of Suwon University, Educational Center of Suwon Science College and so on. Besides, more than 10 majors are available for oversea students. 9 Sino-foreign cooperative programs are run on campus. Over 50 foreign teachers are employed and more than 200 overseas students are studying in LYU. As for domestic cooperation, cooperative relationships have been set up with more than 50 colleges and universities for exchange and communication. The university has joint programs to cultivate postgraduate with Wuhan University, Shandong University, Shandong Normal University and Jinan University.
The university's educational achievements have been fully affirmed and highly appraised by the government and the local people. The CPC Building Work Experience has been selected twice as typical materials for the National Conference of University Party Building. National Party Spirit Educational Base for Universities, Shandong Research Center of Marxism, Provincial University Educational Base of Anti-corruption and Fine Tradition together with Shanghai Teacher’s Social Practical Base of Political Education has been set up in the university. The university also successfully hosted National Party Building Training for universities, the "First secretary" training of Shandong Province and the First National University Students' Traditional Sports-meeting, which help to enlarge the impact of the university.
At present, the university has opened a new chapter. All the staff and students of Linyi University are striving for building a top university in Huaihai Economic Zone, among the national old universities and similar universities all over the country as well as making more contributions to promote the construction of a powerful economic and cultural province and to build an all-around affluent society!
