Southwestern University of Finance and Economics

Southwestern University of Finance and Economics is a key national university directly under the Ministry of Education and one of the first universities to be included in the "Double First-Class" initiative. The university is located in Chengdu, a famous historical and cultural city in China known as the "Land of Abundance". It has two campuses, Guanghua and Liulin, covering an area of more than 2,300 mu. The campus is surrounded by lakes, willows, green grass and trees, and scholars. It is a famous "garden-like institution".

The school originated from Guanghua University, which was founded in Shanghai in 1925. The Chengdu branch of Guanghua University was established in 1938 due to the relocation during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. From 1952 to 1953, the finance and economics departments of 17 institutions in Southwest China were brought together to form Sichuan University of Finance and Economics, one of the four finance and economics colleges in the national higher education division layout at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China. After being divided, merged and renamed in 1960, it was restored as Sichuan University of Finance and Economics in 1978. In 1979, it was transferred from the People's Government of Sichuan Province to the People's Bank of China, gradually forming a unique background in the financial industry and an outstanding disciplinary advantage in finance. In 1985, it was renamed Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. In 1997, it became a key university under the National "211 Project". In 2000, it was transferred to the Ministry of Education as an independent institution. In 2011, it became a university under the national "985 Project" advantage discipline Innovation platform construction. In 2017, it became a national "Double First-Class" construction university.

The university has 26 colleges (research institutes) and other teaching units, 46 undergraduate programs, more than 15,300 full-time undergraduate students, more than 8,500 postgraduate students, and more than 1,400 doctoral students. Since its establishment, the university has provided a large number of outstanding talents for the country's economic construction and social development, and has become an important base for cultivating high-level talents in the country's financial, economic, management and other departments. In recent years, the rate of undergraduate students pursuing further studies at home and abroad has remained above 50%.

The university has a number of teaching and research institutions with strong teaching staff, including the National Base for Cultivating Outstanding Talents in Economics, the National Base for Cultural and Quality Education of College Students, the National Base for Legal Education Practice, and the Base for Innovative Practice of Cultivating High-level International Talents. It has a national teacher teaching development demonstration center, three national experimental teaching demonstration centers, and 25 national first-class undergraduate major construction points. The Economist and Finance Science, which are sponsored by the university, have been respectively rated as famous and excellent social science journals of national universities; Financial Innovation, an English academic journal founded by the university, is a TOP journal in the economics category of the first zone of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Journal Classification, and its impact factor ranks third globally in the field of social sciences and mathematical methods in the JCR. Four textbooks, including "Accounting", won the second prize of the first National Textbook Construction Award. Professor Liu Shibai was awarded the Advanced Individual of the National Textbook Construction Award. "China Finance" and "China Public Finance" were included in the first batch of Chinese economics textbooks. It has a rich collection of modern digital libraries and is currently the largest financial literature center in Southwest China; It houses the Money and Finance Museum, the only currency-related museum among universities in Southwest China.

The school is constantly strengthening the strategic guidance of discipline development and striving to build a disciplinary ecosystem that is distinctive, advantageous, well-structured and full of vitality. The school has 10 first-level disciplines authorized for doctoral degrees, namely Theoretical economics, applied economics, Business administration, statistics, law, sociology, management science and Engineering, Marxist Theory, mathematics, and public administration, and 4 first-level disciplines authorized for master's degrees. It has three doctoral professional degree categories in accounting, auditing and social work, and 19 master's professional degree categories. It has four national key disciplines in finance, political economy, accounting and statistics; It has six postdoctoral research stations in theoretical economics, applied economics, business administration, management science and engineering, statistics, and law. Applied economics has entered the ranks of world-class disciplines. Economics and Business has entered the top 1‰ of ESI global disciplines, ranking 50th globally and 2nd in China. Five disciplines, namely "Social Sciences in General", "Engineering", "Computer Science", "Environmental Ecology" and "Mathematics", have entered the top 1% of ESI global disciplines. The university made significant progress and major breakthroughs in the fifth round of discipline evaluation by the Ministry of Education. Business Administration was accredited by both EQUIS and China's Quality MBA. The first in Chinese mainland to be accredited by AACSB for both business and accounting.

The school has implemented a deep opening-up strategy and strengthened international exchanges and cooperation at a high level, in a wide range and through multiple channels. It has established extensive cooperative relations with more than 200 renowned universities, research institutions and enterprises in over 40 countries and regions around the world. Four Sino-foreign cooperative education programs and one Sino-foreign cooperative education institution have been approved, and it has been selected as one of the first batch of "High-level International Talent Training Innovation Practice Bases" and one of the first batch of "Quality Certification for International Students in China" pilot institutions in Sichuan Province. It was approved as one of the first institutions to be authorized to confer master's degrees in the first-level discipline of "Regional and Country Studies", and the "African Research Center" was registered as a country and regional research center by the Ministry of Education. It has established the Confucius Institute at St. Cyril Metodi University in North Macedonia and the first "Chinese Language International Promotion Base in Chengdu" in Sichuan. The influence of the brand program Global Academy Summer International Academic Camp has been growing. Foreign experts at the school have been awarded the "China Government Friendship Award" and the "Tianfu Friendship Award" on multiple occasions.

The school began enrolling international students in 1996 and was listed by the Ministry of Education as a key institution for training international students in 2001. In 2004, the School of International Education was established as the department in charge of coordinating all international student affairs and teaching Chinese to international students. So far, the college has recruited thousands of international students from hundreds of countries including the United States, France, Germany, the Philippines, Turkey, Australia, Mongolia, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Israel, Russia and Thailand to study Chinese and professional courses, and has established and improved a training system from undergraduate to doctoral programs taught in both Chinese and English. It has formed a multi-level international student training model that includes language learners, Chinese and all-English instruction. The college also actively hosts and customizes special short-term brand programs such as "Chinese Bridge" and "SWUFE Summer Chinese Camp", aiming to provide immersive experiences for foreign teenagers coming to China for exchange, combining practical Chinese language courses with rich and diverse Chinese cultural experiences (such as calligraphy, Tai Chi, tie-dyeing), and organizing students to visit well-known enterprises and communities in Chengdu. While enhancing their Chinese communication skills, they can also have an intuitive experience of the economic vitality and cultural charm of contemporary Chinese society.