SWUFE (Southwestern University of Finance and Economics)is one of the premier universities of finance and economics in China. It is directly under the Ministry of Education and also one of the top 100 universities in the nation’s 211 Project, a national initiative to build 100 first-class universities in the 21st century.

The University was created as Sichuan Institute of Finance and Economics in 1952, when the colleges and departments of business and economics from 17 universities were restructured. In 1980, People’s Bank of China ( PBC ), China’s central bank took over the governance of the University and renamed it SWUFE in 1985. PBC governed the University till February 2000, when the governance was transferred to the Ministry of Education. The University boasts a strong faculty of scholarly excellence and professional dedication. Added to this is the classic campus setting, situated in Chengdu, a beautiful city of fine culture and long history plus being in the vicinity of Du Fu Thatched Cottage, residence of a prominent poet in Tang Dynasty.

The University’s total full-time student population of nearly 14,000 includes about 11,400 undergraduate, over 2,100 master level postgraduate students, over 400 PH.D. candidates, and some 40,000 various degree program students. 50 years since its foundation, the University has turned out over 110,000 graduates, many of whom hold important positions in every kind of organization, from major financial institutions, companies to government agencies.

The Southwestern University of Finance and Economics has a long-standing history, which dates back to Shanghai Guanghua University which was established in June 1925. In the aftermath of May 30th Massacre, hundreds of Chinese faculty members and students of St. John University and its affiliated high school created Guanghua University in support of the patriotic anti-imperialism movement. The name of the University was taken from a poem Qingyun Song to declare the creator’s national spirit to revive China and fight against invaders bravely. At the outbreak of Anti-Japanese War, the university moved to Sichuan to establish a new campus in the province, which was the Private Guanghua University in Chengdu in 1938. Therefore, the local people named the neighborhood where the campus located Guanghua Village after the University. Upon the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the main campus of Guanghua University resumed function, and its Chengdu Campus was taken over by Chengdu authority and renamed it Chenghua University.