This paper reviewed the recent progress in the study of englacial and subglacial drainage system of glaciers. Englacial and subglacial drainage system of glaciers play an important role in glacier runoff process, ice motion anomalies, glacier erosion rate and sedimentation processes. Efficiency of englacial and subglacial drainage system controls the runoff response from glacial catchments by modifying the input and storage rate of liquid water from ice/snow melting and rainfall. It also has important implications for glacial dynamics, through its influence on basal stress distributions or subglacial lubricating by changing the englacial and subglacial hydraulic conditions. The status of subglacial drainage system also affects physical and chemical processes at the ice-bed interface, controlling sediment and solute dynamics in proglacial streams. Furthermore, climate conditions influence glacier ablation processes by the change of the ice melting intensity, glacier melting area and glacier ablation period, which then induce the variation of subglacial water storage and drainage processes. Coupled processes between subglacial hydrology and glacier dynamics therefore should be concerned in the future related research. 