西昌学院扎根于全国最大彝族聚居区——四川省凉山彝族自治州，2003年由西昌农专、西昌师专、凉山大学、凉山教育学院合并组建，是四川省首批整体转型试点院校、国家教育现代化推进工程百所应用型本科高校，也是全国新建本科院校中唯一的省、部、委共建高校。2022年被增列为教育部对口支援西部地区高等学校计划受援高校，由中国农业大学重点支援；2024年成功获批硕士学位授予单位，新增农业、资源与环境、公共管理三个专业硕士学位授权点。

Xichang University is rooted in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, the largest Yi-inhabited area in China. Established in 2003 through the merger of Xichang Agricultural College, Xichang Teachers College, Liangshan University, and Liangshan Institute of Education, it is one of Sichuan's first pilot universities for overall transformation and one of the 100 application-oriented undergraduate universities under the National Education Modernization Promotion Project. It is also the only university jointly built by the provincial government, the Ministry of Education, and the State Ethnic Affairs Commission among newly-established undergraduate institutions in China. In 2022, it was included in the Ministry of Education's counterpart support program for western universities, with key support from China Agricultural University. In 2024, it successfully obtained the qualification as a master's degree-granting unit, adding three professional master's degree programs in Agriculture, Resources and Environment, and Public Administration.

学校现有安宁、邛海两个校区，占地1900亩，教职工1376人，专任教师1086人，其中正高职称131人、副高职称301人，具有博士、硕士研究生学位的专任教师981人。开设17个二级学院，覆盖九大学科门类，以“做强农科、做大工科、做精文科、做优师范、做特艺体”为发展定位，拥有国家民委重点学科2个（作物学、民族学），四川省高等学校“双一流”建设贡嘎计划建设学科1个（作物学），累计为地方培养培训各类专业技术人才20余万人。

The university has two campuses, Anning and Qionghai, covering an area of 1,900 mu. It has 1,376 faculty members, including 1,086 full-time teachers, with 131 holding senior professional titles and 301 with associate senior titles. Among the full-time teachers, 981 have doctoral or master's degrees. The university comprises 17 secondary colleges covering nine disciplines, adhering to the development orientation of "strengthening agriculture, expanding engineering, refining liberal arts, optimizing teacher education, and highlighting arts and sports". It boasts 2 key disciplines of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (Crop Science, Ethnology) and 1 discipline under Sichuan Province's "Double First-Class" Construction Gongga Plan (Crop Science). It has trained over 200,000 professional and technical talents for the local region.