South China University of Technology (SCUT) is located in Guangzhou, the core city of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the forefront of reform and opening-up. SCUT is a national key university directly under the Ministry of Education and consists of three campuses: the Wushan campus, University Town campus, and Guangzhou International campus. SCUT is the winner of the first National Civilized Campus. It has a long history, which can be traced back to 1918 when it was established as the First Type A Industrial School in Guangdong Province; it was formally established in 1952 during the period of national adjustment of colleges and universities and is one of the four major engineering colleges in China. SCUT became a national key university in 1960; it entered the 211 Project and 985 Project in 1995 and 2001, respectively; it was selected into the list of Double First-class, Class A, universities in 2017; it was ranked 201-300 in the academic ranking of world universities in 2018.

School of Economics and Finance is located in the University Town campus, located in the beautiful Xiaoguwei Island on the Pearl River. The school has a complete discipline system of the doctoral degree and master's degree in applied economics, MBA in Finance, Master of Finance, Master of International Business, and Master of Engineering Management. The school has a relatively long history of development. In 1984, the major of Industrial Economics was established to recruit students and train masters. In 1994, the major of finance was enrolled. In 2003, the doctoral program in financial Engineering and Economic development and the master program in finance were established. In 2004, with the completion of the University Town campus, the school of Economics and Trade was established, and the discipline of economics entered a stage of rapid development. In 2010, it was approved as a master's degree in finance. In 2011, it was approved as the first-level master of Applied Economics. In 2014, it was approved as a professional master of International Business. In 2015, it was approved as the first-level doctoral program of Applied Economics. In 2019, the postdoctoral Research Center of Applied Economics was approved; In 2020, the Economics discipline was included in the "Ranking of World First-class Soft Disciplines". In order to further strengthen the construction of high-level disciplines in economics and finance, the School of Economics and Finance was established in July 2020 on the basis of the former School of Economics and Trade.

The school consists of departments of Economics, Finance, International Economics and Trade, and Quantitative Economics. There are 66 full-time teachers, including 21 professors, 32 associate professors, and, 21 doctoral supervisors. 33 of the teachers have overseas study or work experience. There is one chief expert of major projects of The National Social Science Fund, one "Expert with Outstanding Contribution" of the Ministry of Domestic Trade (now the Ministry of Commerce), one New Century Excellent Talent of the Ministry of Education, and two talents of Guangdong Provincial Talent Plan.

The school adheres to the principle of moral cultivation, and consistently cultivates outstanding talents with national sentiments and global vision and "three forces" (learning force, thinking force, and action force). The school already has a complete talent training system for undergraduate  and master's degree in economics (including three majors in finance, economics, international economics, and trade), and operates specialized undergraduate programs such as economics innovation classes, Construction Bank Financial Technology (FinTech) management class, HSBC Financial Technology (Fintech) Elite management class, and joint 2+2 training program with the Department of Economics at the University of Queensland; programs of cultivating academic masters of applied Economics, Master of Finance, Master of International Business, and Master of Engineering Management; programs of cultivating doctoral and post-doctoral students in applied economics. In 2019, the finance major was selected into Guangdong Provincial Characteristic undergraduate major Construction project, and the cultivation mode of economics Innovative Class (undergraduate and postgraduate) won the first prize of Guangdong Education and Teaching Achievement Award (Higher education category). There are 1,271 undergraduate students, 388 master's students and 52 doctoral students (March 2021).

The school has a strong scientific research atmosphere. In the past five years, it has undertaken 1 major project of the National Social Science Foundation, 3 key projects of the National Social Science Foundation, more than 50 national projects such as the National Natural Science Foundation and the National Social Science Foundation, and more than 400 projects of the ministry and provincial level. Members have published more than 300 academic papers in well-known academic journals, including Economic Research, Management World, and so on. Awarded by more than ten prizes, including the higher school science outstanding achievement (humanities and social science), Sun Yefang financial innovation, Guangdong province philosophy social sciences outstanding achievement of scientific research achievement. More than 20 advisory have been approved for decision-making references for national and provincial government departments. It has provincial research bases and Think tanks such as "Financial Engineering Research Center", "Cross-border Financial Innovation Research Center", "Supply Chain Financial Engineering Technology Research Center of Guangdong Province", and "Guangzhou National Innovative City Development Research Center".

The school attaches great importance to international collaboration, carries out the contact and cooperation with the world famous universities, and builds the international exchange and cooperation platform. In recent years, it has established regular cooperation with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the United States, London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom, the University of Queensland in Australia, and the City University of Hong Kong, including 2+2 joint undergraduate training, student exchange programs, and scientific research cooperation.

With excellent educational conditions, the school undertakes the construction of the National liberal arts comprehensive experimental teaching demonstration center, including financial innovation laboratory, economic comprehensive laboratory, sand table simulation laboratory, and so on, with a total of nearly 1,000 square meters. The construction of nearly 500 square meters of books and information center, with more than 20,000 professional books and more than 10 kinds of professional databases.

Rooted in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, with a foothold in China and a global perspective, the School of Economics and Finance is striving to build a world-class and high-level discipline of economics and finance with Chinese characteristics.