Shanxi Datong University (SDU) is a multi-disciplinary institution approved by China's Ministry of Education in 2006. It was formed by merging Yanbei Teachers College, Datong Medical College, Datong Vocational & Technical College and Shanxi Industry Polytechnic College.

SDU is situated in Datong, a famous historical and cultural city. The campus covers 1.6 million square meters and has a constructed area of 700,000 square meters. The new campus has four main buildings: a new teaching building, a technology laboratory, a new Library and a coliseum. Equipment at the university used for teaching cost 96.36 million RMB ($13.84 million). The library has a collection of over 1,800,000 books. There are 35 majors, 16 schools in Politics and Law, Literature and History, Foreign Language, Arts, Engineering, Medicine, Agriculture and so on. Full-time undergraduate enrolment has reached 22,000.

The university has 1,400 full-time teachers, of whom 38 percent are professors and associate professors, 21 percent have a Master's degree or Doctorate and 317, or 24 percent of all the faculty, are currently completing their postgraduate studies.

There are three key provincially supported disciplines, 10 key university construction disciplines, six brand-making majors, two provincial laboratories, 15 extended courses and one course extended provincially. 

Over the last three years, research at SDU has increased in quantity and quality as well as diversity. The university has acquired 20 national research projects and 109 provincial projects, and produced 3,675 papers on science and technology, of which 201 were printed in core academic periodicals and 130 were entered into the international major paper indexing system. In addition, 326 books were published, 13 of which received provincial or ministerial awards.

In brief, Shanxi Datong University is developing as an institution with more complete disciplines and better teaching conditions as well as higher teaching quality and scientific research ability.