Guangdong University of Finance & Economics (GDUFE) was founded in 1983 with the approval from China State Council. It received “Excellent” in the undergraduate education evaluation conducted by China ‘Ministry of Education in 2008. It’s a member of the Association of Belt & Road Universities, the University Alliance of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, the Association of Universities of Finance and Economics for Belt & Road Education Internationalization of Industry–University Collaboration and the Association of China-Russia Economic Universities. It consists of two campuses with a total land area of about 150 hectares. Guangzhou is a hub along the “Belt and Road” as well as a central city of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Guangzhou campus is within walking distance of the Canton Trade Fair Complex (Guangzhou International Convention Center), and the Foshan campus is located within the scenic Sanshui Forest Park. The total enrollment of full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students is over 27000.

1. Disciplines and Programs

GDUFE has developed a multi-disciplinary education system in economics, management, law, humanities, science, engineering and arts. Because of its strong expertise in economics, management and law, GDUFE is now listed as a leading educational provider of high-quality academic programs, scientific researches and social services in South China.

Applied Economics, Business Administration and Law are listed as provincial advantageous key disciplines while Applied Economics is listed as provincial key discipline with features. Over 40 academic master programs and 13 professional 1 master programs are offered by GDUFE. In 2017, GDUFE was approved as the doctoral degree awarding project construction unit of Guangdong Province, and in 2021, doctor programs in Applied Economics are approved to be offered.

GDUFE offers 63 bachelor programs, among which, Taxation, Finance, International Economics and Trade, Business Administration, Marketing, Accounting, Auditing, Law and E-commerce are listed as “First-class” key national undergraduate programs; Public Finance, Finance, Marketing and Accounting are categorized as outstanding programs of national level; 9 majors including Human Resource Management are listed as “First-class” key provincial undergraduate programs.

2. Faculty

GDUFE boasts 1,585 full-time faculty, among whom 246 professors and 472 associate professors, 860 doctorate holders; 419 are master program supervisors and 19 are doctoral supervisors; there is 1 national teaching team (Cross-disciplinary Comprehensive Experimental Teaching Team in Economics and Management), 15 provincial teaching teams, 10 provincial scientific research teams.

GDUFE has 14 “Nanling” Scholars, nearly 70 professors including members of Honor Division of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, those who receive special national allowances, candidates for “New Century Talents Project” and “Ministry of Education Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University ”, Peal River scholars and young talents supported by “Guangdong Talents Project”. In addition, 4 experts are members of the Higher Education Committee of China's Ministry of Education, 1is a member of the Provincial University Degree Committee, 3 Law professors are on the list of “ Ten Young Law Experts”, 5 teachers have been awarded the title of “ Provincial Best Teacher of the Year”, and 16 teachers have been awarded the title of “Outstanding Teachers in South China ”.

3. Talents Cultivation

GDUFE’s educational philosophy is to foster students’ all-round development by student-centered education and develop students’ practical skills in accordance with their aptitudes. GDUFE is constantly perfecting the idea of “Teachers-led, students-oriented, theoretical studies combined with practical learning, in-class education combined with extra-curricular activities, actual classrooms combined with virtual classrooms, and on-campus resources combined with off-campus resources” with the aim to cultivate all-round highly trained young experts with sound morals, scientific spirits, humanistic qualities, professional knowledge and international visions. In recent years, GDUFE has made a number of achievements in the training of high-achievers:

The “Economic and Management Experimental Teaching Center” is one of the first two national teaching demonstration centers in China and is selected as the National virtual simulation experimental teaching center. The “Economic and Management Talents Cultivation Experimental Zone” which strives to educate students with entrepreneurial ambitions and potential is a national experimental zone for innovative educational methods.

GDUFE is also one of the first national educational centers for outstanding law students, as well as a center for university students’ cultural education. Besides these, there is a Practical Teaching center for Economics (jointly run with the Guangzhou Local Tax Bureau), which is functioning at a national level.

GDUFE is the one of the first universities that is approved by the Ministry of Education to develop graduate courses. GDUFE is also a platform for international young experts specializing in applied accounting and taxation.

An innovative and entrepreneurial education model centerd around finance and economics has been developed by GDUFE. In this way the university has become a demonstration university for innovation and entrepreneurship education.

GDUFE’s graduate employment rate is one of the highest among all universities in the province and the graduates’ quality has consistently been relatively high. In the past five years, employer satisfaction rate regarding GDUFE graduates has been 99%.

4. Scientific Research

Adhering to the idea of “pursuing truth and applying the results” in scientific research, GDUFE is continuously upgrading its level of scientific research. The following are key areas of our endeavors:

-GDUFE has 7 key research centers for Humanity and Social Sciences: Research Center for National Economics; Research Center for Legal and Economic Development; Research Center for Public Finance in Guangdong Area; Research Institute for Capital Market and Auditing Governance in the Guangdong-Hongkong-Macao Greater Bay Area; Research Institute for Innovative Competitiveness in the Guangdong-Hongkong-Macao Greater Bay Area;

-1 Provincial Collaborative innovation Platform: i.e. Collaborative innovation Development Platform for Technology and Finance Industry in Pearl-River Delta;

- 1 Key Laboratory for Philosophy and Social Sciences: Laboratory for Big Data and Educational Statistics Application; - 1 Provincial Key Think Tank: Think Tank for South China Business Development;

- 1 Provincial Research Center for Engineering Technology: Guangdong Research Center for Intelligent Business Engineering Technology - 2 Provincial Research centers for Decision Consultancy: Research Center for Logistics and E-Commerce, Research Center for the Open Economy;

-2 Provincial Research centers for Social Sciences: Research Center for Business History of South China, Research Center for Rural Area Construction;

-2 Guangzhou Municipal Research centers for Humanities and Social Sciences: Guangzhou Research Base for Modern Logistics and E-commerce development, and Guangzhou Research Base for Metropolitan Literature and Culture.

- 1 Guangzhou Key Research Base for Young Marxist Theory talents training: Young Marxist Theory Talents Training and Research Base of GDUFE

In the past five years, 127 national research projects, 364 provincial research projects, 3 national significant tending projects sponsored by The National Social Sciences Fund of China and Key Projects of Philosophy and Social Sciences Research (Ministry of Education), were conducted by our university.

1,492 papers were published in core journals such as China Science, Economic Research, Management World, etc. 237 works of various kinds were published with 24 excellent achievement awards of provincial level being gained.

“The Journal of Guangdong University of Finance & Economics” is a resources journal of CSSCI, and listed as a national Chinese core journal, a national AMI core journal for humanities and social sciences, a national core journal for RCCSE, a core journal for China humanities and social science, and it is on the list of the Top 100 best journals in Chinese universities, etc.

5. Social Services

Adhering to the service philosophy of “Gaining support by doing service and seeking development by contribution”, GDUFE conducts scientific research and offers consultancy service in response to the needs of economic and social development of Guangdong Province.

67 professors are appointed as decision consultancy experts, provincial contingency management consultants, legislative legal consultants and finance consultants, etc.

GDUFE has established long-term partnerships with governments and all sectors of society, having jointly established 21 platforms with State Administration of Taxation Guangdong Taxation Bureau, Guangdong Taxation Society, Guangdong Institute of Theory CPPCC, Guangdong Research Center for Tourism Development, Qingyuan People's Congress Standing Committee etc.

Besides these, more than 100 strategic partnership agreements have been signed with different city governments such as South China Sea Bureau, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingyuan Municipal Government, Hezhou Municipal Government, Longnan Municipal Government and with different industries and enterprises such as China Construction Bank(Guangdong), Country Garden, etc.

6. International Exchanges and Cooperation

GDUFE attaches great importance to the internationalization of education by proactively seeking international quality educational resources with the aim to build a “first-class university of Finance and Economics in the greater bay area with distinctive characteristics” and educate all-round young talents with global competence. It's a member of the Association of Belt & Road Universities, the University Alliance of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, the Association of Universities of Finance and Economics for Belt & Road Education Internationalization of Industry– University Collaboration and the Association of China-Russia Economic Universities, Graduate Education of Higher Education Institutions Alliance of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, Law Education and Talents Training Alliance of Guangdong- Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, “Innovation Center for China-US Youth Exchange”program and Base for Talents Cultivation for People to people exchange in Intellectual Manufacturing. It’s also awarded “Innovative Talents Training Base ” and “Best Partner ” for Sino-American CHEPD 1+2+1 Program of Ministry of Education.

GDUFE has developed an international education platform for highly trained young talents in the applied sciences, mainly by:

GDUFE has developed an international training platform for teaching and managerial personnel: GDUFE has established 4 overseas training bases at Pace University, USA, Marquette University, USA, University of Western Australia, and University of Exeter, UK.

GDUFE has developed 9 international (including Hongkong, Macao and Taiwan) innovative platforms for joint scientific research and has been hosting influential international forums such as the “International Forum on Economic Development in the Bay Area” and the “International Forum of China and Latin American Countries on Taxation”.

GDUFE has developed an international education platform for highly trained young talents in the applied sciences, mainly by:

- having established partnerships with more than 70 universities and educational agencies in USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Poland, Japan, etc., as well as in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan

- implementing nearly 70 programs of joint education at all levels, including articulation programs with University of Northern Arizona, University of Exeter, University of Western Australia, Curtin University, University of Technology, Sydney in International Business, Financial Management, Finance, Law, Accounting, Taxation and Statistics.

- having established 4 overseas bases for practical teaching in Germany, New Zealand, Argentina and Italy (in every summer vacation since 2015, students have been sent for entrepreneurship or aesthetic education in these bases)

- having established the “GDUFE Goethe Language Center” in collaboration with the Goethe Institute, which is the only authoritative base for German language study and examination in South China