兰州工业学院发轫于抗日战争时期兴起的中国工业合作运动，前身系新西兰国际友人路易·艾黎于1942年创办的培黎工艺学校，是其"手脑并用、创造分析"教育理念深入实践的第一所"中国工合运动"学校。1958年改建为甘肃省机械制造学校，1962年与煤炭、电力、轻工、重工和邮电5所中专合并组建为甘肃省工业学校，1974年更名为兰州工业学校。1989年改建为兰州工业高等专科学校。2012年，经教育部和甘肃省人民政府批准，改建为兰州工业学院。

Lanzhou Institute of Technology originated from the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Movement during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. Its predecessor was the Bailie Vocational School founded in 1942 by New Zealand international friend Rewi Alley, which was the first "Chinese Industrial Cooperative Movement" school to deeply practice his educational philosophy of "learning by doing and creating through analysis". It was restructured into Gansu Machinery Manufacturing School in 1958, merged with five technical secondary schools (coal, electric power, light industry, heavy industry, and post and telecommunications) to form Gansu Industrial School in 1962, renamed Lanzhou Industrial School in 1974, restructured into Lanzhou Polytechnic College in 1989, and finally upgraded to Lanzhou Institute of Technology with the approval of the Ministry of Education and Gansu Provincial People's Government in 2012.

学校现有兰州市七里河校区、兰州新区校区两个校区，占地面积2078亩，建筑面积82.48万平方米。兰州新区校区于2024年9月落成启用。学校现有馆藏纸质图书106.83万册，电子书籍117.17万册，教学科研仪器设备总值1.84亿元。现有教职工1030人，专任教师789人，副高级以上职称317人，具有硕士及以上学位教师636人，占比80.61%。双师双能型教师324人，占比41.1%。设有15个教学单位，42个本科专业，涵盖工学、经济学、管理学、文学、艺术学等5大学科门类。现有普通全日制在校学生17069人。

The university has two campuses: Qilihe Campus in Lanzhou City and Lanzhou New Area Campus, covering an area of 2078 mu with a building area of 824,800 square meters. The Lanzhou New Area Campus was completed and put into use in September 2024. The university has a collection of 1,068,300 paper books, 1,171,700 e-books, and the total value of teaching and research instruments and equipment is 184 million yuan. There are 1,030 faculty members, including 789 full-time teachers, 317 with associate senior titles or above, and 636 with master's degrees or above, accounting for 80.61%. There are 324 "double-qualified" teachers, accounting for 41.1%. The university has 15 teaching units and 42 undergraduate majors, covering five disciplines: engineering, economics, management, literature, and art. The number of full-time students is 17,069.