A Brief Introduction to Shanxi University of Finance and Economics
Shanxi University of Finance and Economics (SXUFE) was founded in 1951, one of the forerunners in the field of higher education of Finance and Economics in the New China. In September 1958, the five cadres' schools, i.e. Shanxi Financial Administration Cadres' School, Shanxi Banking Industry Cadres' School, Shanxi Supply and Marketing Cooperative Cadres' School, Shanxi Commercial Administration Cadres' School and Shanxi Grain Administration Cadres' School, were merged constituting Shanxi Finance and Economics Institute (SXFEI), which was first under the control of Shanxi Province; then administered by Headquarters of China Supply and Marketing Cooperatives since September 1978, by Ministry of Commerce from February 1982, by Department of Domestic Trade since January 1993 and again by Headquarters of China Supply and Marketing Cooperatives since January 1996. In December 1984, Shanxi Economic Management Institute (SXEMI) came into existence and was under the administration of Shanxi Province. In October 1997, with the approval of the former China State Educational Committee, SXFEI and SXEMI were merged composing SXUFE, which was under the control of both Shanxi Province and Ministry of Education. From October 1999, SXUFE has been governed by Shanxi Province.
SXUFE is situated in Taiyuan City, the capital of Shanxi Province and a famous historical and cultural city in China. With its southern, northern and western campuses, SXUFE covers an area of about 1000 mu (equivalent to 67 hectares), of which the building space occupies about 500 thousand square meters. The library of SXUFE has a collection of 1.35 million books. Recruiting students from 30 provinces, cities or autonomous regions in China, SXUFE now contains nearly 35 thousand students of all kinds, of which there are 14 thousand regular undergraduate students and over 15 hundred Doctor and Master degree applicants. SXUFE is backed by an intellectually strong and structurally well-designed faculty consisting of over 800 regular teachers, among which there are about 350 professors and associate professors, 31 experts enjoying special government subsidy or of provincial or ministerial excellence, 86 teachers with Doctor degree or in the process of applying for their Doctor degrees, 500 teachers with Master degree or in the course of applying for their Master degrees. And the number of the teachers with Master degree or Doctor degree is 64% of that of all the teachers. Over 200 experts or scholars prominent in both China and abroad have been invited to be part-time or visiting professors of SXUFE. The University owns a group of researchers of sciences, highly capable and showing a strong teamwork spirit. In the fields of political economics, finance and statistics, many professors of SXUFE are nationally renowned experts or scholars.
SXUFE is a multi-disciplinary university with economics and management science as its featured and advantageous programs; and economics, management and law as its main specialties. There are 24 schools or departments in SXUFE and the programs that they run cover 7 disciplines all together, i.e. economics, management science, law, liberal art, science, engineering and pedagogics. SXUFE now has PhD programs on 3 subjects: political economics, finance and statistics; Master Degree programs on 4 top-rank disciplines: theorized economics, applied economics, management science & engineering and business administration. The University has 32 Master Degree programs in total and is authorized to open MBA and MPA programs and runs 35 undergraduate programs. In addition, the university is also authorized to offer Master degrees to applicants who do not have a bachelor degree but have acquired equivalent academic competence.
SXUFE has 3 provincially key disciplines: political economics, statistics and finance; 4 provincially key construction disciplines: industrial economics, accounting, management science & engineering, economic law; 3 key provincially supported disciplines: social security, enterprise management and public finance; 2 provincially key research bases of liberal art and social sciences: Research Center of Shanxi Exchange Shop and Jin (the short form of Shanxi) Businessmen and Research Center of Traveling Economics; and 2 provincially model laboratories: computer lab and language lab. SXUFE possesses 5 provincially brand-making majors: international economics & trade, accounting, financial management, business administration and finance; 6 elaborate courses selected provincially: management science, international trade, intermediary financial management, financial management, political economics and management decisions.
SXUFE has a history of 20 years in running adults higher education, which is currently conducted in 3 ways i.e. regular study in university, correspondence, evening schools and 2 levels, i.e. undergraduate and university study with 2 or 3-year schooling. Since 2001, SXUFE has begun to open higher vocational education and now there are 30 vocational majors. In the meantime, SXUFE also undertakes the teaching and administration of ‘Z to B' [1] i.e. selecting excellent graduates from the schools of Higher Vocational Education or ‘Zhanke' in Shanxi province for a further study to get their bachelor degree.
SXUFE is equipped with such modern teaching and experimental facilities as computer center, Internet center, modern educational technology center, electronic library, financial laboratory, computerized accounting, ERP laboratory, commodities science laboratory, environmental monitoring laboratory, E-business laboratory, simulated court, museum for currencies in history and so on. And most classrooms in SXUFE have multi-media facility. SXUFE has 32 academic research organizations, and compiles and publishes such academic journals as ‘SXUFE Journal' and also ‘SXUFE News'.
SXUFE advocates an innovative “broad, convergent and divergent” educational policy aiming to improve the students' overall quality. With a better comprehensive quality thanks to the ever-increasing educational level of SXUFE, its graduates are quite sought-after with hiring companies. In recent years, students of SXUFE have obtained excellent achievements in China National College English Competitions and also ranked first in National Mathematical Modeling Competitions. In 2001, SXUFE performed excellently in the Random Appraisal of Undergraduate Teaching organized by China Educational Ministry. In recent years, the number of students whose college entrance scores to SXUFE have exceeded the admission score to China key universities is nearly one third of that of the students in SXUFE. The rate of employment of SXUFE undergraduates has been kept around 80% and that of postgraduates around 98%.
SXUFE has been actively developing its exchanges and cooperation with its foreign counter-parts with its teachers being sent to America, Britain, Germany, Holland, Australia, Japan, Canada and Hong Kong etc. for further study of academic exchanges. SXUFE has established university-to-university cooperation with over 30 universities in the world including University of Wisconsin U.S.A., Northumbria University U.K., St. Berchman's College India and Sydney University Australia and so on. And there are also agreements on exchanges and cooperation between SXUFE and Kanto-Gakuen University, Japan and Sabah University Sabah, Malaysia. In 2002, SXUFE set up its Zhongde College in cooperation with Otto von Guericke University of Technology, Germany and, in 2005, the first group of 109 students went to study in Germany. In 2004 and 2005, a two-week summer post-graduate program was held respectively in Taiyuan and Magdeburg with Otto-von-Guericke-University and SXUFE alternating as hosts and, in 2005, the two universities cooperated again in setting up a “2+3+2” educational mode of undergraduates and postgraduates. In 2005, SXUFE became a sister university to Northwestern Polytechnic University, U.S.A and an extensive range of cooperative educational programs have since been developed between the two universities.
In recent years, researches of all kinds in SXUFE are increasing in quantity and quality as well as diversity. Of all these researches, 13 are of state level; 275 of provincial or ministerial level and 31 are horizontal subjects. About 1,496 papers were published in key journals, among which 278 were published in state journals; 12 entered the five major paper indexing system; 64 received provincial or ministerial awards. The funds for researches of all kinds amount to 7.08 million Yuan (U.S. $ 885 thousand). In the year 2005, SXUFE received 2 nationally funded projects in natural sciences and 3 in social sciences and 22 researches received Shanxi Excellent Research Award. SXUFE has been approved to carry out 25 research subjects in the validation of 2005 research subjects in “the tenth Five” plan for Shanxi Philosophy and social sciences. For this approval, SXUFE continues to rank first of all the applying institutions.
SXUFE's comprehensive ability in running a university is improving steadily. It has entered the list of the top 100 universities of social sciences and ranks 11 th among all the universities of finance and economics in China. In the aspect of scientific innovation and competitiveness, SXUFE is in the list of the top 100 universities of social sciences.
In the past 50 years, there are over 100 thousand students who have graduated from SXUFE and are working now in various parts in society. With this effort, SXUFE has made a significant contribution to the national and local economic and social development. SXUFE adheres to Deng Xiaoping theory and the important thought of ‘Three Represents', diligently implements the Party's educational policies, and fulfils the scientific development outlook. With scientific theories as its guiding principles, advanced culture as its building substance, practical spirit as its managing power, historical responsibility as its developing strength, SXUFE, following its university motto ‘Be virtuous, faithful, erudite and truthful', is united, enterprising, hard-working and innovative to build a high-level socialist university of finance and economics.
[1] Z stands for "zhuanke" in Chinese which pertains to a collegiate level at which a graduate will have completed two or three years of college education, and obtained a diploma, the equivalent of an associate degree; B stands for "benke," a bachelor-equivalent level at which a graduate will have completed four or five years of college education and obtained a diploma with or without a bachelor degree.