South China University of Technology (SCUT) is located in Guangzhou, a core city of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and a pioneer of China’ s reform and opening-up. As a national key university directly under the Ministry of Education, SCUT has three campuses—Wushan, University Town, and Guangzhou International—and was among the first recipients of the National Civilized Campus honor.

SCUT’s roots date back to 1918 with the establishment of the Guangdong Provincial First Type-A Industrial School, historically known as “Red Jia Gong.” The university was formally established in 1952 during the nationwide restructuring of higher education and became one of New China’s Four Major Engineering Colleges. It was designated a national key university in 1960; approved by the State Council in 1981 as one of the first institutions authorized to confer doctoral and master’s degrees; pioneered the ministry–province co-establishment model in 1993; entered the national “Project 211” in 1995 and “Project 985” in 2001; was selected as a Class-A university in the Double First-Class initiative in 2017; and ranked among the global top 150 in the 2023 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) by Shanghai Ranking. SCUT is now striving to build a world-class university with Chinese characteristics.

Our school is based on the University Town Campus on the scenic Xiaoguwei Island in the Pearl River. The economics discipline at SCUT has a long trajectory of development: in 1984 it launched the Industrial Economics program at the master’s level; in 1994 it opened the undergraduate program in Finance; and in 1996 the undergraduate program in International Economics and Trade. In 2003, it established the doctoral program in the secondary discipline of Financial Engineering and Economic Development and the master’s program in Finance. With the completion of the University Town Campus in 2004, the School of Economics and Trade was founded. In 2011, the school was approved to offer the first-level discipline master’s program in Applied Economics; in 2015, the first-level discipline doctoral program in Applied Economics; and in 2019, a postdoctoral research station in Applied Economics. In July 2020, following another round of restructuring, the School of Economics and Finance (SEF) was established, marking a focused phase of building Applied Economics. The school launched a Finance MBA program, entered Shanghai Ranking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects in Economics, and in 2023 its Economics subject ranked 35th nationwide (top 20%). In 2024, Economics and Business entered the global top 1% in ESI.

SEF upholds moral education as the fundamental mission and is committed to nurturing innovative, creative, and entrepreneurial talents with both a strong sense of national responsibility and a global vision, underpinned by excellence in learning, thinking, and action. The school comprises four departments: Economics, Finance, International Economics and Trade, and Quantitative Economics. It currently enrolls 2,257 students, including 1,338 undergraduates, 310 full-time master’s students, 404 part-time Finance MBA students, 142 part-time Finance MEM students, and 63 doctoral students in Applied Economics. At the undergraduate level, the school offers programs in Economics (covering Finance, Economics, and International Economics and Trade), FinTech, Economics Innovation (integrated bachelor’s–master’s track), Finance + Computer Science and Technology, and FinTech in partnership with HSBC and China Construction Bank. At the graduate level, the school offers academic master’s programs in Applied Economics, Finance, International Business, Business Administration, and the Finance Engineering Management, and plans to launch a master’s program in Digital Economy. It also trains PhD and postdoctoral researchers in Applied Economics. In 2021, the Economics and Finance disciplines were selected as national first-class undergraduate programs, while International Economics and Trade was selected as a Guangdong provincial first-class undergraduate program. In 2023, the FinTech ranked 5th nationwide in Shanghai Ranking. In 2024, the Economics discipline was selected as an innovative experimental zone for cultivating top talents in basic disciplines in Guangdong Province.

SEF has over 60 full-time faculty members, including 24 professors (two at Level II), 26 associate professors, and 25 doctoral supervisors，33 of whom have overseas study or work experience. The faculty includes recipients of major national talent honors such as Leading Talents in Philosophy and Social Sciences under the National Ten Thousand Talents Program, Experts with Outstanding Contributions from the Ministry of Domestic Trade (now Ministry of Commerce), New Century Excellent Talents of the Ministry of Education, and experts receiving the State Council Special Allowance. Research at SEF is vibrant: in the past five years, the school has undertaken over 60 national-level projects—including major, key, and general projects of the National Social Science Fund and projects of the National Natural Science Foundation—and more than 400 provincial and ministerial projects. Faculty have published over 500 papers in leading journals such as Economic Research Journal, Management World, and the Journal of Corporate Finance. The school has won more than 20 research awards, including the Outstanding Achievement Award in Scientific Research (Humanities and Social Sciences) for Higher Education Institutions, the Sun Yefang Financial Innovation Award, and the Guangdong Philosophy and Social Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award. Over 20 policy briefs have informed decision-making by national and provincial governments. SEF also hosts four provincial-level research bases and think tanks: the Financial Engineering Research Center (a key humanities and social sciences base of Guangdong Province), the Cross-Border Financial Innovation Research Center (a distinctive new-type think tank of Guangdong provincial universities), the Guangdong Provincial Supply Chain Finance Engineering Technology Research Center, and the Guangzhou National Innovative City Development Research Center.

SEF is deeply committed to internationalization. It has jointly established a 2+2 double-degree program with the School of Economics at the University of Queensland (Australia) and participates in over 40 university-level international cooperation and exchange programs. It has also launched distinctive inbound study programs with partner institutions in Belt and Road countries, such as a 2+2 International Trade program with the Vietnam University of Commerce. The school maintains sustained collaborations with world-renowned universities including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA), the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK), the University of Queensland (Australia), and the City University of Hong Kong (China).

SEF enjoys excellent educational resources. It hosts the National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center for Liberal Arts, including a Financial Innovation Lab, a Comprehensive Economics Lab, and a Sandbox Simulation Lab, totaling nearly 1,000 square meters. It has also constructed a Library and Information Center of nearly 500 square meters, housing over 20000 professional books and periodicals, as well as more than a dozen specialized databases.

Rooted in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, based in China, and oriented toward the world, the School of Economics and Finance is striving to build a high-level economics and finance discipline with Chinese characteristics that ranks among the global best.