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Southwestern University of Finance and Economics

Southwestern University of Finance and Economics is a national key university under direct administration of the Ministry of Education and is listed in both “Project 211” and “985 Innovative Platforms for Key Disciplines Project ”of the Chinese government as part of the national endeavor to build world-class universities in the 21st century. It is also selected as one of the trial spots for nation-wide educational reform. Located in the city of Chengdu, Southwestern University of Finance andEconomics now has two campuses, the Guanghua Campus and the Liulin Campus. With an overall area of about 380 acres (or 2300 Chinese Mu), Southwestern University of Finance and Economics is also known for its picturesque campus scenery.
Southwestern University of Finance and Economics with long and fine cultural and revolutionary legacy was originally founded as the Shanghai Guanghua University in 1925. Since the founding of the university, generation after generation Southwestern University of Finance and EconomicsRs shoulder national responsibility spontaneously, and thus the university motto of “diligently striving for the well-being of the people and the society” has been recognized by the public, and thus earns credit andtrust for Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. As a key training base for senior level management personnel in the financial and economic sectors and key research base for the development of the financial industry as well as the socio-economic development of western China, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics has become favorably known as “China’s financial talent pool” and “the think-tank for addressing financial and economic issues in western China”. The university has nurtured an array of excellent leading figures in finance among its 130,000 school fellows.
The university forms advanced finance-related disciplines as the key discipline and Economics and Management disciplines as the mainstream, ensuring a coordinated development of various disciplines. As a result, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics has gained reputation and academic influence profoundly. It has established cooperative relations with nearly 100 prestigious universities, financial institutes and enterprises from around 30 countries and regions worldwide, helping to promote international standards and practices in educational management of economics. In an era of fierce competition and boundless opportunities, committing to Quality Priority and Connotation Development, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics has adhered to its four main development strategies:
(i) Maintain its unique features.
(ii)Build competitiveness through the cultivation of talent.
(iii)Continue reforming and innovating in line with a changing world.
(iv) Further open up the university to join globalization so as to build a high-level research-based university that focuses on finance and economics with its own characteristics.
Southwestern University of Finance and Economics also accelerates the construction of high-level financial university with its distinctive features, and contributes to the prosperity of the country, the rejuvenation of Chinese nation, the happiness of the people and the harmony of the society. The library of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics holds 2.7million printed books and e-books, and ranks as the largest document center of finance and economics in southwestern China.

The Vicissitudes and Legacy
The University was originally founded as Shanghai Guanghua University in 1925 and enjoys a long history of nearly 90 years. On June 3rd, the patriotic students broke away from the St. John University after the May 30th Movement, a patriotic and anti-imperialist movement. With the leadership of Zhang Shouyong, a prominent scholar in Qing dynasty, Guanghua University was founded, and the name was inspired by a Chinese saying: this piece of land is forever bathing in the brilliance of sun andmoon. It demonstrates Chinese people’s determination to rejuvenate the nation. Following the outbreak of war with Japan, the university moved to the inland city of Chengdu in 1938 to ensure the safety of the students, staff and faculty. In 1946, it was renamed the private Chenghua University. In 1952, the university was transformed into the public Chenghua University and in 1978, it merged with schools and departments of business and economics from 16 other universities and colleges and was renamed Sichuan Institute of Finance and Economics. In 1980, People’s Bank of China (PBC), China’s central bank, took over the administration of the University and renamed it the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (Southwestern University of Finance and Economics) in 1985. PBC administered the university until the administration was transferred to the Ministry of Education in 2000. The university was listed in the “211 Project” (the Chinese government's endeavor to build 100 institutions of higher learning as a national priority for the 21st century) in 1995. It became the pioneering university for national education reform in 2010 and was listed in the “985 Innovative Platforms for Key Disciplines Project” (the Chinese government's education project for building innovative platforms for key disciplines at China’s prestigious universities in the 21st century) in 2011.

Disciplinary Development
On the basis of consolidating and improving the coordinated development among economics, management, law, liberal arts, science and other industry- specific subjects, the university is committed to the construction of “a Galaxy of Finance-Related Subjects”, with Finance as the key discipline and Economics and Management disciplines as the mainstream, ensuring a coordinated development of diversified subjects. Southwestern University of Finance and Economics endeavors to accomplish“985 Innovative Platforms for Key Disciplines Project” ------the innovative development of financial disciplines at China’s universities and finance in China. It has also co-launched the Coordinated Innovation Center for Financial Development and Security in China (CICFDSC) with the National Audit Office of the People’s Republic of China, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), Renmin University of China (RUC), and Wuhan University.
Innovation of disciplinary development mechanism, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics has given high priority to the development of the four integrated disciplinary areas, including Research Institute of Economics and Management, Research Institute of Finance, Research Institute of Development and Research Institute of Marxism Economics. Having gone through the development during the periods of the “ninth five-year plan”, the “tenth five-year plan”, the “eleventh five-year plan” and the three stages of the “211 Project”, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics has seen a remarkable advancement in its disciplinary strength and core competitiveness.

List of Achievements Recognizing Excellence in Teaching:
•4 key disciplines registered at the national level
•Offers Doctoral Degree programs in five primary disciplines
•Offers Master Degree programs in eleven primary disciplines
•“National 985 Innovative Platforms for Key Disciplines Project ”—Innovation of the development of financial discipline galaxy and China’s financial development
•Coordinated Innovation Center for the Financial Development and Security in China
•5 education and research bases of national -level
•4 integrated disciplinary areas
•4 pilot projects of the national education system reform
•"985 Innovative Platforms for Key Disciplines Project"

A Galaxy of Prominent Scholars
The university implements the strategy of improving its competitiveness by pooling wisdom of the talent. It has over 2000 faculty members, including over 1200 instructors, 189 professors, 342 associate professors and 252 doctoral tutors. Moreover, the university now employs over 400 Chinese scholars who obtained their Doctoral degrees overseas, more than140 returnees are full-time faculty members and 9 are employed as deans of schools. Besides, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics has over 100 chair professors and class professors from overseas as regular instructors. Their participation and contribution concur to generate the “talent cluster effect”.

High Quality Talent
Undergraduate Education
The university has followed three reform philosophies: implementing reforms on liberal education, value quality teaching, promoting an integrated approach to train innovative talent, carrying out the teaching reform as well as changing the class teaching mode thoroughly and training a galaxy of financial talent. Southwestern University of Finance and Economics carries out the programs of international innovative talent and Guanghua innovative talent, endeavoring to cultivate an enabling environment. Thus Southwestern University of Finance and Economics will continuously improve the quality of talent. The university is awarded for 66 national-level and provincial-level teaching achievements. Moreover,55 courses have been listed as the national-level and provincial-level excellent courses.
At present, the university has 27schools with 32 undergraduate majors (including centers and divisions) that attract high-quality and enthusiastic students from all parts of China. At present, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics has over16,000 registered full-time undergraduate students.

List of domestic teaching awards:
•Ten National-Level Excellent Courses
•Five National-Level Bilingual Model Courses
•Eight National-Level Featured Majors
•Two National-Level Experiment Zones for Innovation of the Mode of Talent Training
•Six National-Level Teaching Teams
•Nine Provincial-Level Undergraduate Cultivation Bases

Graduation Education
Southwestern University of Finance and Economics is one of the earliest universities to offer graduate programs following the education reform of the 1970’s. There are over 7,000 graduate students including over 5993 Master’s degree candidates and1103 Doctoral degree candidates. In recent years the university has been vigorously engaging in the reform of the categorization of talent training to meet the demand of the society. The university launched the “Doctoral Degree Candidates Innovative Education Program” to explore alternative modes of graduate education and promote innovation of joint training of students in partnership with overseas educational institutions. The overall quality of academic degrees and graduate education has witnessed all-around improvement in recent years, which makes this university a significant training base forgraduate students of economics and management.

Foreign Student Education
Southwestern University of Finance and Economics started to enroll overseas students in 1996 and was listed as a key university for overseas student education by the Ministry of Education in 2001. At present the university offers 38 Doctoral degree programs, 67 Master’s degree programs and 32 Bachelor’s degree programs to overseas students. The university also has four Bachelor’s degree programs and two Master’s degree programs delivered completely in English and these programs have trained several thousand foreign students from over 100 countries.

Academic Innovation
Southwestern University of Finance and Economics vigorously advocates and promotes academic innovation and it adheres to the principle of serving the nation through encouraging innovation and academic freedom as well as directing the research to addressing the conspicuous issues of the society. Recent years have witnessed evident progress on research anddevelopment. The faculty and students of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics have issued over 1200 papers on high-level domestic and international academic journals. The university is responsible for over 400 national/provincial projects and has won over 70 national/provincial awards.
SWUFFE accelerates the think-tank building. The university is devoted to addressing the issues of China and of western China in particular and fully plays the role of the think-tank. Southwestern University of Finance and Economics endeavors to build an innovative team. The university encourages inter-disciplinary cooperation, and some influential academic teams are born, like China Household Finance Survey Center.
Southwestern University of Finance and Economics creates a strong academic atmosphere. The university has hosted multiple influential international academic conferences and forums such as “International Conferences on Financial Statistics and Financial Econometrics”, “Biennial Conference of Hong Kong Economic Association”, “Chinese Finance Annual Meeting”, “Chinese Management Annual Meeting”, etc. The university sets up "Liu Shibai Economic Award" to promote research on economics throughout the nation. The university's journals Economist and The Science of Finance and Economics are two key journals in economic studies in China. The "Guanghua Forum", the university's platform for holding seminars and lectures, has also become a famous brand in the field. University Press House is running efficiently with far-reaching impact.

International Exchanges
The university has carried out the strategy of comprehensive and thorough globalization and established channels of international exchanges and collaboration. It has cooperated and reached exchange agreements with almost 100 prestigious universities, educational institutions, financial organizations and companies. The university also provides students and faculty with opportunities of international exchanges to train globally minded and world-class talent. Southwestern University of Finance and Economics adheres to the policy of bringing in excellent overseas instructors and high-level cultural andeducational experts. An increasing number of prestigious scholars and corporate executives pay their visits to Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, the number of overseas students increases year after year, together leading to a much more globalized campus.

Employment and Entrepreneurship
The university is committed to creating employment opportunities for graduates and has built a comprehensive career development service team to ensure successful graduate employment. Southwestern University of Finance and Economics has offered students the course of Career Plan for University Students, and run a magazine called The Starting Line in Career. It has hosted the profession fair and opened experimental supermarket managed by students. Southwestern University of Finance and Economics has internship programs in cooperation with 302 companies, institutions and organizations and the graduate employment rate surpasses 95%. Recently the “Student Business of Southwestern University of Finance andEconomics” Initiative (the SBS Initiative) has been launched, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics appropriated 7 million RMB Yuan as entrepreneurial fund to encourage and support students’ entrepreneurship in an effort to offer students an enabling environment in which the startup can learn through practice.

University Ethos
Culture is the soul of a university. The motto of “diligently striving for the well-being of the people and nation” has been inspiring Southwestern University of Finance and EconomicsRs to be open-minded, wise and caring people. Improving the ‘all-round’ quality of students is at the core of campus activities. Southwestern University of Finance and Economics takes pride in cultivating a campus atmosphere that emphasizes innovation and the appreciation of fine culture. Southwestern University of Finance and Economics has won the first prize of “Excellent Achievement in the Construction of Campus Culture” awarded by the Ministry of Education of China.
Nobel-Prize winners have visited our university and engaged in inspiring frontier discussions and seminars with faculty andstudents. List the names of nobel prize winners that have visited Southwestern University of Finance and Economics: Robert A. Mundell, Reinhartd Selten, James Mirrlees, Oliver Williamson, Robert F.Engle. etc.
The university now continues to adopt the Scientific Outlook on Development as the guiding principle, striving to develop itself into a high-caliber university with distinguishing features and excellence in the disciplines of finance and economics and a prestigious university with international reputation.