Among the pioneers of business education in China, the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics was founded as part of Nanjing Advanced Normal School in 1917 but relocated to the nation’s great commercial centre in 1921, becoming Shanghai University of Commerce. After three changes of name, it took its current title in 1985.
Controlled by the Ministry of Education, it proclaims the aim "To serve society, seek the truth, strengthen morality and benefit the country" under the motto "Strive for Virtue and Knowledge, Assist in Economics and Governance".
Rated a Double First Class Discipline University and a member of Project 211, it was the first Chinese finance and economics university to offer doctorates in 1981. It was also the first Chinese university to introduce academic tenure in 2005.
In 2017 it enrolled around 18,500 students, a little under a third of them postgraduates and around nine per cent from abroad. They are divided between four campuses spread across the city, the largest hosting undergraduate studies in the Yangpu district, and the newest on Wudong Road. Abroad, the university sponsors Confucius Institutes in Tallinn and at Queen Mary, University of London.
Among its entrepreneurial activities are the participation of the finance faculty in the creation of EMIT, a financial data modelling and risk platform and in advising the NASDAQ-quoted information technology company CLPS.
Since 2001 overseas students have staged an annual International Cultural Festival and in 2019 won the 12th International Students Dragon Boat Race, beating 29 other Shanghai-based universities.
