Northwest Normal University (西北师范大学) is an institution of higher learning in Lanzhou, Gansu Province of the People's Republic of China.
The predecessor of the Northwest Normal University was the National Beiping Normal University, originating from the Normal College of the Capital Grand Academy founded in 1902 in Beijing. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, National Beijing Normal University moved westward and formed the Northwest Union University, together with National Beiping University and Beiyang Institute of Technology. The former Normal University, as a whole, became the Normal College under the Union University. In 1939, the Normal College dissociated from the Union University and became independent National Northwest Normal College. It was relocated to Lanzhou in 1941.
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the college had been one of six key normal colleges under direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, until 1958 when it became administered by the government of Gansu, and was renamed Gansu Normal University. In 1981, it resumed the name Northwest Normal College, and was in 1988, renamed Northwest Normal University. Currently the university is one of 14 key universities in West China supported by the Ministry of Education, and is a key university in Gansu Province.