臨沂大學是國家設立、山東省政府直屬管理的綜合性大學，“山東省特色名校工程”重點建設大學。學校坐落在風景秀美、人文薈萃的歷史文化名城、商貿物流之都、濱水生態之城、紅色旅游城市、全國文明城市山東省臨沂市。前身是1941年由中共濱海區委和抗大一分校共同創建的濱海建國學院。在70多年的辦學歷程中，學校始終秉承“實”的校風和“明義、銳思、弘毅、致遠”的校訓，不斷解放思想，開拓創新，實現了超常規跨越式發展，培養畢業生25萬人。
學�，F設有20個二級學院、9個科研院所、2個分校，本科專業80個，涵蓋文學、理學、工學、藝術學、管理學、教育學、法學、農學、經濟學、歷史學等10大學科門類。學校面向全國招生，現有全日制在校生39000余人，教職工2700余人，其中教授、副教授700余人，博士、碩士1300余人，碩士、博士研究生導師110余人。
學校以“全國知名、區域特色鮮明的創新創業型大學”為奮斗目標。聚力定位塑校，確立科學發展愿景；聚力教學立校，創新人才培養機制；聚力科研強校，提升自主創新能力；聚力服務榮校，實現校地互動發展；聚力人才興校，提升師資隊伍水平；聚力開放亮校，努力拓展國際視野；聚力文化鑄校，彰顯特色辦學精神；聚力改革活校，強化體制機制保障。努力培養“基礎理論扎實，富有創新精神和創業能力，具有沂蒙精神特質和國際視野的高素質應用型人才”。
學校校園由美國EDSA公司融合了美國斯坦福大學校園規劃理念設計而成，校園環境優雅，學術底蘊濃厚。學校校舍面積152萬平方米，其中圖書館、實驗中心、藝術中心、體育中心是目前國內高校建筑面積最大的樓體之一。學校教學科研儀器設備總值2.8億元，館藏紙質圖書430余萬冊，電子圖書75余萬種，電子期刊3.5余萬種，電子圖書和電子期刊達1.4余萬GB，建成了國內較為先進的數字化校園系統。
學校與美國、英國、俄羅斯、韓國、日本、法國、印度等國家的60多所高校建立了友好合作關系，建有中外合作高爾夫學院、軟件學院、水原大學臨沂研究生院、水原科學大學美容美發教育中心等機構，開展中外合作辦學項目9個。學校設立的漢學、中國武術、中國民族樂器、中國畫、中國書法、國際經濟與貿易、翻譯學、藝術設計、工商管理、新聞學等專業招收國外留學生。
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!
