SWUFE (Southwestern University of Finance and Economics) is one of the premier universities of finance and economics in China. It is directly under the Ministry of Education and also one of the top 100 universities in the nation’s 211 Project, a national initiative to build 100 first-class universities in the 21st century.

The University was created as Sichuan Institute of Finance and Economics in 1952, when the colleges and departments of business and economics from 17 universities were restructured. In 1980, People’s Bank of China ( PBC ), China’s central bank took over the governance of the University and renamed it SWUFE in 1985. PBC governed the University till February 2000, when the governance was transferred to the Ministry of Education. The University boasts a strong faculty of scholarly excellence and professional dedication. Added to this is the classic campus setting, situated in Chengdu, a beautiful city of fine culture and long history plus being in the vicinity of Du Fu Thatched Cottage, residence of a prominent poet in Tang Dynasty.

More than half century of development, especially the intensified efforts since 1995 within the 211 Project frameworks, has greatly enhanced the University’s administrative and academic resources. We offer 28 doctoral, 43 master and 29 bachelor’s degree programs in and among 19 University’s departments and schools. These programs are distributed over the areas of business, industry, economics, liberal arts, and law that feature a coordinated pattern with financial programs as core and economics and management programs as mainstream. The University has 3 mobile post-doctoral stations including theoretical economics, applied economics and business administration; 2 key disciplines registered at the ministerial level, i.e., financial studies and political economics; and 12 key disciplines at the provincial level. In addition, the University is home to 3 teaching/research centers ratified by the Ministry of Education, i.e., National Center for Economics Teaching, National Center for Liberal Arts and Humanities Education of University Students, and SWUFE China Finance Research Center. The University is the first institution authorized to train MBA and CPA in southwestern China. SWUFE sponsors over 30 interdisciplinary and specialized research and teaching centers and enters into partnership with foreign education and business organizations, among them the Center for PBC Simulated Banking Labs, Center for Business Foreign Languages Training ( BFT) and China Actuary Training Center.

Members of teaching/research, library, administration, and supportive faculties number more than 1300, among who over 900 work in teaching/research 130 professors, over 230 associate professors, and 62 doctor supervisors. The University is proud to have Liu Shibai, Zeng Kanglin, He Zerong, Zhao Guoliang, Jiang Mingxin and many other nation-wide renowned economists and management experts on its faculty. Moreover, more than 100 prominent economists, bankers, and senior corporate executives are invited to serve as professors emeritus.

The University’s total full-time student population of nearly 14,000 includes about 11,400 undergraduate, over 2,100 master level postgraduate students, over 400 PH.D. candidates, and some 40,000 various degree program students. 50 years since its foundation, the University has turned out over 110,000 graduates, many of whom hold important positions in every kind of organization, from major financial institutions, companies to government agencies.

The University has always committed to enhance the overall quality of educational experience and the caliber of faculty, and it has achieved very well. In recent years, it has won over 20 awards for research results at national and provincial (ministerial) levels. The University’s Dean’s Office and Graduate School were respectively awarded by Ministry of Education Leading Chinese University Dean’s Offices and Best Graduate Schools in Teaching and Administration.

The University is an important knowledge contributor to China’s financial industry and western region economic research with its some 18 research institutes, including China Finance Research Center and West China Economic Research Center. Since reform and opening up, it has produced nearly 10,000 research findings, successfully completed over 400 national/ provincial research projects, and received over 220 awards for research results at national and provincial (ministerial) levels. The Research Division was awarded by the Ministry of Education Leading National Research Administration of Higher Learning Institutions. The University Press has won the honor of Excellent Press by State Press and Publications Administration and Excellent Press of Higher Learning Institutions by Ministry of Education for three times in six consecutive years. The University’s journal the Economist is the excellent national social sciences journal, and Science of Finance and Economics is awarded the First Top 100 National Social Science journals.

The University has always placed adequate stress on educating its faculty and students about the importance of political integrity. Its Communist Party of China (CPC) committee was awarded by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee Leading Local CPC Committees in 1996, and by Organization and Propaganda Departments of the CPC Central Committee and CPC Committee of the Ministry of Education 1993-1998 Leading Universities in Party Building and Ideological and Political Work.

The University has modern teaching-and-research facilities, quality athletic and logistic service hardware enhanced with easy Internet and fiber optical connections. The University’s main library houses over 1.15 million volumes. Covering an area of 125 acres, SWUFE maintains a beautiful campus full of lawns, trees and gardens. It has been listed as a fine model of forestation and Garden-Style Campus by the government.

In order to better meet the requirements of global and domestic economic development in the 21st century, SWUFE is ready to take the opportunities and face the challenges, to inherit and enhance the existing characteristics and good culture of the university, and to endeavor to build SWUFE into one of the best domestic universities with world reputation in the middle of this century when the university celebrates its 100th anniversary.
The Southwestern University of Finance and Economics has a long-standing history, which dates back to Shanghai Guanghua University which was established in June 1925. In the aftermath of May 30th Massacre, hundreds of Chinese faculty members and students of St. John University and its affiliated high school created Guanghua University in support of the patriotic anti-imperialism movement. The name of the University was taken from a poem Qingyun Song to declare the creator’s national spirit to revive China and fight against invaders bravely. At the outbreak of Anti-Japanese War, the university moved to Sichuan to establish a new campus in the province, which was the Private Guanghua University in Chengdu in 1938. Therefore, the local people named the neighborhood where the campus located Guanghua Village after the University. Upon the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the main campus of Guanghua University resumed function, and its Chengdu Campus was taken over by Chengdu authority and renamed it Chenghua University.

After the founding of New China, during the period of higher education restructuring from1952 to 1953, 17 business schools and finance and economics departments, including Business School of Chenghua University, , Economics Department of Law School of Chongqing University, Economics Department of China West University, were merged to be Sichuan Institute of Finance and Economics. China Public School, one of these 17 schools, was established in 1905 with Sun Zhongshan, Huang Keqiang, Song Jiaoren, Cai Yuanpei serving on its board. The Business School of Chongqing University, also one of the preceding schools, was founded in 1937 Prof. Ma Yinchu, a prominent economist was the first president.

The then newly-established university was one of only four comprehensive finance and economics higher institutions in China. Its mission is to educated talents of finance and economics the nation’s economic development. The University was the home of almost all prominent economists in Southwest China such as Chen Baoyin, Li Xiaotong and Peng Dixian. The effort made by these excellent professors laid a solid foundation for the Institute’s development.

The reform and opening-up initiative presents tremendous opportunity and potential for higher education in finance and economics. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) took over the university’s jurisdiction in 1980 and renamed it Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in 1985 as a leading university among its fleet of education establishments. Since March 1995, SWUFE has been officially listed in the 211 Project. In February 2000, the Ministry of Education (MOE) replaced PBOC as the University’s immediate administrative body and the University became one of the national key universities directly under MOE.