In the course of over half a century's development, Liaoning University has grown into a multiple-discipline comprehensive university, embracing Chinese language and literature, history, philosophy, economics, law, foreign languages, art, natural science, engineering and management. One of its predecessors is Shenyang Commercial College set up by the People's Government of the Northeast in November, 1948.

Liaoning University is one of the key universities listed in the nation's "Project 211" and affirmed by the Ministry of Education.

The University has fifteen colleges, namely: College of Economics, College of Business Administration, College of International Economics, Asia-Australia College of Business, College of Cultural Propagation, College of Philosophy and Public Administration, College of Foreign Languages, College of Radio, Film and Television, College of Chemical Science and Engineering, College of Law, College of Information Science and Technology, College of Higher Professional Techniques, College of Adult Education, College of Foreign Students, and College of Training Self-Study Students of Humanities and Professional Techniques.

In addition to the colleges, the University has five college-level faculties, namely: Faculty of History, Faculty of Mathematics, Faculty of Physics, Faculty of Life Science and Faculty of Environment Science. Altogether, the University has forty-three undergraduate disciplines, fifty-three master-degree-granting disciplines, including MBA and JM. The University is also invested with authority to grant doctorate of philosophy in theoretical economics (the first level discipline) and nine other doctorates (the second level discipline).

Furthermore, the University has three mobile stations for post-doctoral studies to its credit, with two national key disciplines of world economy and national economy in addition to a base for cultivating personnel of basic national economy, and a key base for research on humanities, and a center of research on the system of comparative economy as designated by the Ministry of Education. The University has eleven province-level key disciplines and one test and detection center.