The precursors to Tibet University were informal classes established by Tibet Military District Cadre School in 1951. In 1956, the school was renamed the Tibet Local Cadre School. In 1961, the Tibetan Administrative Cadre School was established on the basis of the former Tibetan Local Cadre School, with
Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme as its principal, and in October 1965, the school was renamed the Tibetan Teacher Training School, with 755 children of farmers and herdsmen enrolled in the following year. In 1975, the school was transformed into the Tibetan Teacher Training College, with departments of political science and language, mathematics and physics, and arts and physical education. In 1982, the Department of Tibetan Language was merged to the school. In May 1983, the
State Council of the People's Republic of China officially approved the creation of the University of Tibet on the basis of the existing Teachers College in Lhasa. Tibet University was formally established on 20 July 1985, as one of
43 Aid Projects to Tibet. By 1989, it had eight departments of Tibetan language and literature, language, political history, art, Tibetan medicine, mathematics and science, chemistry, biology, economics and management, as well as a Tibetan language training department. Since 1999, various institutions of higher education, including the art school of the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Tibet Medical College, the Medical Department of the Tibet Institute for Nationalities and the Tibet Autonomous Region Finance School have all been incorporated into Tibet University, giving it a more rounded profile of academic departments. In March 2001, with the approval of the
Ministry of Education, Tibet University and Tibet College of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry merged to form a new Tibet University. In December 2008, Tibet University was selected as a beneficiary of the national
Project 211. == Student life ==