University of International Business and Economics

The University of International Business and Economics is directly administered by the Ministry of Education and jointly supported by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Commerce. It was among the first universities included in the national Double First-Class and Project 211 initiatives.

The university has a long history and was the first higher education institution in the People’s Republic of China dedicated to training foreign trade specialists. It was founded in 1951 as the Advanced School for Commercial Cadres under the Ministry of Trade of the Central People’s Government. It was renamed Beijing Foreign Trade College in 1953. In 1954, the foreign trade program of Renmin University of China was incorporated into it, and the institution was renamed Beijing Institute of Foreign Trade. It became a national key higher education institution in 1960 and a priority institution for foreign language education in 1964. In 1978, the Beijing Institute of Foreign Trade became directly administered by the Ministry of Foreign Trade. In 1983, it merged with the Institute of International Economic Management, which had been administered by the State Import and Export Commission. It adopted its current name in 1984. In 1997, it was selected as a key national Project 211 university. The China Institute of Finance was established in 1987 under the People’s Bank of China. In 2000, the University of International Business and Economics and the China Institute of Finance merged to form the new University of International Business and Economics, directly administered by the Ministry of Education. In 2010, the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Commerce signed an agreement to jointly support the university. In 2017, it joined the first group of universities in the national Double First-Class initiative.

The university has clear disciplinary strengths. It offers 57 undergraduate programs, 14 first-level disciplines authorized to award master’s degrees, 14 professional master’s degree authorization fields, 8 first-level disciplines authorized to award doctoral degrees, 2 professional doctoral degree authorization fields, and 7 postdoctoral research stations. These cover seven categories—economics, law, education, literature, science, engineering and management—as well as interdisciplinary studies in National Security Studies and Intelligent Science and Technology. Applied Economics is a national Double First-Class development discipline. International Trade and International Law are 2 national key disciplines. Applied Economics, Law, Business Administration, Accounting, World Economics, Law and Economics, and Low-Carbon Economics are 7 Beijing key disciplines, and Digital Trade is a Beijing high-level, advanced and cutting-edge discipline.

The university has a distinctive and well-regarded approach to talent training. It consistently emphasizes the development of high-quality, innovative and internationally oriented leaders. Graduates are widely welcomed for their strong professional knowledge and skills, foreign language proficiency, active thinking and practical abilities. Its more than 300000 alumni have remained at the forefront of reform and opening-up, serving the country’s main economic arena and major strategic needs. “Wherever there is trade in the world, there are people from UIBE.” The quality of its incoming students has consistently placed it among leading Chinese universities. It has more than 17000 students, including over 9000 undergraduates, over 6300 postgraduate students and over 3200 international students.

The university has a strong faculty, bringing together distinguished masters and emerging talent. Liao Fujun, Wu Yugan, Yuan Xianneng, Yao Zengyin, Shen Daming, Yao Nianqing, Shi Daoyuan, Zhang Xiongwu and Feng Datong are among its great scholars of China’s foreign economic relations and trade, renowned in China and abroad. Its staff have received 45 selections for major national talent programs, and 46 experts receive special allowances from the State Council. It has 5 national teaching teams, including the Accounting and Financial Management team and the International Trade team, which were selected as National Huang Danian-style University Faculty Teams, and a total of 21 outstanding teaching teams at provincial or ministerial level or above. Its staff have served on Ministry of Education teaching advisory committees on 21 occasions. 3 have been named Ministry of Finance distinguished accounting scholars, and 2 have received the China Finance Discipline Lifetime Achievement Award. It currently has 1785 faculty and staff, including 1077 full-time teachers, 349 professors and 419 associate professors.

The university consistently regards serving China’s opening-up strategy as its responsibility and is accelerating the development of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics. It has more than 30 teaching and research units and over 160 research centers. Its China Institute for WTO Studies is a Ministry of Education key research base in the humanities and social sciences specializing in the World Trade Organization. Its platforms include a Ministry of Education philosophy and social sciences laboratory (the Global Value Chains Laboratory), a Ministry of Education strategic research base (the Institute of Global Innovation and Governance), an education strategy and planning research center (the Center for Education and Open Economy Studies), bases under the university disciplinary innovation and international expertise introduction program (Global Value Chain Research and Research on Overseas Governance Risks of Chinese Enterprises along the Belt and Road), 12 country and regional studies centers registered with the Ministry of Education, a national research base for foreign-related rule of law (the Institute for Foreign-Related Rule of Law), a capital high-end think tank (the Beijing Institute for International Opening-Up), a Beijing philosophy and social sciences research base (the Beijing Research Base for Enterprise Internationalization), the Beijing University Collaborative Innovation Center for Research on the Theory and Practice of Building a Strong Open Economy, and the UIBE research base of the Beijing Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

The university emphasizes openness in education and active exchange between China and other countries. It was among the earliest institutions in the People’s Republic of China to educate international students, and international exchange and cooperation remain defining features and important drivers of its development. It has cooperative exchange relationships with more than 370 renowned universities and institutions in 62 countries and regions. Both the number and proportion of international students rank among the highest at Chinese universities. Approximately 30% of undergraduate graduates pursue further study at renowned overseas universities. Nobel laureate in economics Michael Spence, China Reform Friendship Medal recipient Stephen Perry, and German National Academy of Science and Engineering member Andreas Loschel hold academic positions at the university. It has established 10 Confucius Institutes across Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas and Oceania.

The university has strong educational resources and an elegant environment in Beijing’s Chaoyang District, with the remains of the Yuan Dynasty capital to the south and the Bird’s Nest stadium to the north. Li Lanqing, Rong Yiren, Henry Fok and Wu Yi have served as chair, honorary chair or honorary president of its board. Social donors have established 43 scholarship, financial aid and teaching award funds and 107 other public-interest projects. Its library holds more than 1.22 million printed books and subscribes to 1367 Chinese and foreign newspaper and periodical titles and 74 Chinese and foreign databases. It publishes a variety of academic journals, several of which enjoy high academic standing, including Journal of International Trade, International Business – Journal of the University of International Business and Economics, Japanese Learning and Research, Journal of WTO and China (Chinese title: World Trade Organization and China), and Business and Economic Law Review.

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the university’s faculty, staff, students and alumni regard serving high-level opening-up in the new era as their responsibility. Led by its open-economy discipline cluster, they are committed to forging “a new UIBE path toward a distinctive, world-class university.” They uphold the educational philosophy of “Educating People and Developing Talent, Connecting China and the World, Strengthening Quality and Creating Excellence,” remember the founding mission of “Educating People for the Party and Developing Talent for the Nation,” and promote the motto “Extensive Learning, Integrity, Inquiry and Earnest Practice.” They advance with determination and courage to educate socialist builders and successors with commitment to family and country, a global outlook, professional expertise, and all-round moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic and labor development.