Yunnan University is cooperating with the University of Teheran in Iran and the University of Dhaka and North South University in Bangladesh to establish three Confucius Institutes. It already operates a Confucius Classroom in Mandalay, Myanmar. In India, it is helping Visva-Bharati University to develop its Chine Bhavana. Yunnan University is willing to cooperate with South Asian and Southeast universities in establishing Confucius Institutes.

Yunnan University is now a Study Abroad Training Base of the MOE, an Education Aid Base of the MOE, a Training Base of International Software Talents and a Yunnan Provincial Cultivating Base of International Talents.

The University has invited many internationally famous scholars and experts, entrepreneurs, celebrities and politicians to lecture. The famous futurologist and author of China's Megatrends, John Naisbitt, Roy J. Glauber, Nobel Laureate of Physics, Ambassador of Finland Mr Lars Backstrom, Orlando Ayala, corporate vice president and chairman of emerging businesses at Microsoft, former US ambassador Gary Locke and Buddhist master Hsing Yun have all lectured at Yunnan University.

Looking into the future, Yunnan University will continue to enhance its academic strengths, improve its education quality, strengthen its research capacity and social services, and promote its cultural inheritance and innovation capability to become a regional first-class university that is "the best in China, and famous throughout the world."