A brief introduction of ZUEL

Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, a university of humanities and social sciences with economics, management and law as its three core disciplines, coordinated with five other disciplines including literature, history, philosophy, science and engineering, is an institution of higher education directly under the Ministry of Education and one of the universities sponsored by the “211 Project” as well as one of the key universities of "985 Project" Advantage Discipline Innovation Platform. The University has two campuses—the South Lake Campus and the Shouyi Campus, with the former being located beside the beautiful South Lake and the latter near the famous historical site of Wuhan City, the Yellow Crane Tower.

(1) Solid Historical Foundation

The Institution’s predecessor, Zhongyuan University, was founded by the Zhongyuan Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China with Deng Xiaoping as the first secretary and the second secretary Chen Yi as the director of the Preparatory Committee. In 1953, during the restructuring of national institutions of higher education, Zhongnan Institute of Finance and Economics and Zhongnan Institute of Politics and Law were founded respectively, based on the Institute of Finance and Economics and Institute of Politics and Law of Zhongyuan University, integrating programmes of economics and management and Departments of Politics and Law of Sun Yat-Sen University, Jinan University, Guangxi University, Hunan University, Henan University etc in the six provinces of Central South China. In 1958, Zhongnan Institute of Finance and Economics, Zhongnan Institute of Politics and Law, Zhongnan Political Cadres’ Training School and Department of Law of Wuhan University were combined into Hubei University. In 1971 Hubei University was renamed as Hubei Vocational School of Finance and Economics.

In Jan.1978, the above-mentioned school was renamed as Hubei Institute of Finance and Economics with the approval of the Hubei Provincial government and it was included on the list of the first batch of higher education institutions which were authorized to enroll undergraduates and postgraduates nationally. In January of 1979, with the approval of the State Council, Hubei Institute of Finance and Economics was placed under the supervision of both the Ministry of Finance and Hubei Province, with the former taking the lead. In December of 1984, based on the Department of Law of Hubei Institute of Finance and Economics, Zhongnan Institute of Politics and Law was restored under the leadership of Ministry of Justice. In September of 1985, Hubei Institute of Finance and Economics was renamed Zhongnan University of Finance and Economics. Deng Xiaoping inscribed the name of the university in person. In February of 2000, after the approval by the State Council of China, Zhongnan University of Finance and Economics and Zhongnan Institute of Politics and Law merged into one-Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, which was officially founded on May 26th of 2000. For details, refer to Figure 2-1 The Development of ZUEL. Since the merger, the Institution has made great achievements in infrastructure, faculty, research and service to society. In September of 2005, ZUEL became one of the universities sponsored by the“211 Project”. In Oct. 2012, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, and the Hubei Provincial Government jointly signed an agreement to co-construct the University.

(2) Highly Qualified Faculty Team

The University consists of 20 schools, such as the MBA School, the School of Economics, the School of Business Administration, the School of Accounting (including the MPAcc Center), the School of Finance and Taxation, the School of Finance, the School of Law, and the School of Public Administration (including the MPA centre), etc. It has more than 20 administrative organs, such as the University Office, the Human Resource Office, the Development and Planning Office, the Teaching Affairs Office, the Scientific Research Office, the International Communication Office, the Finance and Accounting Office, the Information Administration Office, the Logistics Office, the Career Planning Guidance Office, etc. It also has more than 10 organs under the its direct leadership, such as the library, the File Administration Office, the Experimental Teaching Centre of Economics and Management, the Jurisprudence Experimental Teaching Centre, etc.

There is a full-time teaching and administrative staff of 2,600 members at ZUEL, including 1,600 teachers, of whom there are more than 200 professors, 500 associate professors and 160 doctoral supervisors. It has a group of learned scholars, who have gained prestige in the academic world of humanities and social science both at home and abroad. Of this group, there is one professor who is in Cheung Kong Scholars Programme and nineteen professors who are in the Chu Tian Scholars Programme. Forty-seven teachers enjoy special government allowances from the State Council, while thirteen other teachers enjoy special government grants from Hubei Province, and thirty-two teachers were awarded the title of “Young Experts of Hubei Province with Prominent Contributions”. Since the Tenth Five-year Plan, two teachers have been awarded as “Excellent Young Teachers” by the Ministry of Education; nine teachers have been in the Young Teachers Aid Plan, sponsored by the Ministry of Education; twenty-four teachers have been in the New Century Excellent Talents Aid Plan of Ministry of Education; four teachers have been members of the New Century Hundred-Thousand-Ten-Thousand Talents Project of China; one teacher has been in the Cross-Century 111 Talents Project of Hubei Province; and thirty teachers have been members of the New Century High Level Talents Project of Hubei Province. Since 2000, more than 800 key research projects at the state and provincial level have been accomplished by ZUEL faculty members, among which 200 were projects of the National Social Science Fund, National Natural Science Fund and key projects of Ministry of Education; and 600 were sponsored by Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Justice. More than 20,000 research findings have been achieved, including over 900 monographs, over 1000 textbooks, and over 17,000 theses, of which over 600 were published in foreign countries.

(3)Complete Educational System

ZUEL has more than 20,000 full-time undergraduates, more than 6,000 post-graduates, 900 doctoral and 9,000 adult education students, and enrolls more than 400 overseas students every year as well. It boasts three core disciplines, namely Economics, Law, and Management. Discipline integration, competitive disciplines, quality majors, flagship courses, elaborate text books, and capable teachers are combined to create a sound education system. Up until now, ZUEL has been in the Experimental Programme for Undergraduates’ Innovation for three years.

(4) Excellent teaching quality

The university attaches great importance to the quality of teaching. It shapes the education philosophy featuring “Student-oriented Teaching”, “Total Quality Control”, “Special Competitiveness”, and “Co-ordinated Development” by adhering to the principle of “Talent-Fostering First”. In the meanwhile it highlights its advantages in fostering talents of “Innovative, Integrated, and International”. For instance, the University provides students with the following courses which represents its distinctive features, English of Law, Journalism of Law, Journalism of Economics, Judicial Accounting, Economic Ethics, Economics of Law, Economic Investigation, to name a few. It also nationally initiated the following three public compulsories: “Fundamentals of Economics”, “Fundamentals of Law”, and “Fundamentals of Management” so as to push forward integration and fusion of its three key disciplines. As one of the largest bases for cultivating economic and financial talents, the University inherited and carried on its fine traditions and kept reforming in the past more than half a century, and thus shaping the notion of “Running First-Grade Education with Distinctive Features” and the mode of talent fostering accordingly. As a result, the core competitiveness of students is honed. The employment rate of students keeps ranking top nationally with jobs of higher ranks.

(5) Active Social Service

With persistence in combining scientific research with construction of modernization, ZUEL gives full play to the three functions, namely guidance function of philosophy and social sciences, consulting function of many research works, and service function offered by faculty members. ZUEL has formulated the Strategy of “Double-orientation” (meaning pursuit of theoretical achievements in basic research and real-world promotion in applied research) and the Concept of “National vision with Hubei focus, Active participation with distinctive features”. Guided by the strategy, ZUEL, taking advantage of its outstanding disciplines, strives to build up a think tank in the field of finance and law, create an intellectual service Logo compatible with the national strategy of “The Rise of Central China” in 21st century". As a result, ZUEL will finally enable itself to offer powerful intellectual support for the promotion of national intellectual property strategy, construction of law and development of the economy.

(6) Faster Development of Internationalization.

In international academic exchanges, ZUEL has developed worldwide cooperative research and academic exchange relationships with the universities and research institutes of more than twenty countries and areas in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania. The University has run joint programmes of Visual Communication Design (orientation of Animation and Game) and Film Studies (orientation of Image Content) with Dongseo University in Korea. It has founded the Confucius Institute in State University of New York at Stony Brook (SBU), and has programs of exchange students with Lund University in Sweden, Université de Cergy-Pontoise in France, Calais High Business School in France, Université Jean Moulin-Lyon in France, ESC Saint-Etienne in France, Oita University in Japan, and SBU. The University has joint programmes with Cardiff University and University of Glasgow of Britain, University of West Georgia of the U.S., Canterbury University of New Zealand and Curtin University of Australia. The overseas students come from more than 70 countries. The University annually enrolls more than 400 international students. To broaden the international vision of faculty and improve their research competence, the University has been implementing “Million Project” (allocating 1 million yuan annually) to sponsor the young backbone teachers to receive overseas training. During 2007-2012, 153 teachers were dispatched for overseas improvement for stay of 6-24 months. In the recent years, the University, in the meanwhile, intensifies bringing in excellent overseas faculty. Nowadays, there’re also more than 60 teachers who obtained doctoral degrees from overseas universities.

(7) Excellent Schooling Conditions

The University, covering an area of more than 461 acres with housing area of more than 1.11 million square meters, is one of the 100 universities in China which are first equipped with intranet. It is equipped with good teaching facilities, including multi-media classrooms, language laboratories, specialized laboratories, moot court and Forensic Science Identification Centre at Criminal Justice School, and Experiment Centres at School of Business Administration, School of Accounting, School of Information and Safety Engineering, and School of Journalism and Mass Media, etc. The Library possesses more than 3 million volumes of books, more than 2.8 million e-books, and decades of data bases for specialized literature with searching and whole-text-use functions.

In the past more than 60 years since its founding, the University, adhering to its motto of “Learned, Rational, Virtuous, and Devoted” and carrying out its educational philosophy of “Self-cultivation, Integrity, Innovation, and Perfection”, successively turned out about 300,000 graduates of all levels for the country. They are highly recognized and lauded within their society for their high calibre and excellent qualities, in different majors and degrees. Many of these graduates have become senior government officials, academic elites, and business magnates.

In 2013, the succession of the university leadership was gradually finished. The new target is set as follows: “building a first-grade research-oriented university of humanities and social sciences with distinctive features”. It is expected to realize the co-ordinated development of multi-disciplines with preserving the advantages in the three key disciplines—economics, law, and management. In the recent years, according to the overall national deployment of the Ministry of Education, the University gives top priority to the development of the Professional Master Programmes including MBA and EMBA. It is expected that in the coming 5 years, the total enrollment of the Professional Master students will take up 50% of the total. The University has made favorable policies on Professional Master programmes in terms of enrollment plan, internship and practice, faculty selection, and financial support.

Status of the MBA School

ZUEL was among the second batch of universities in China to offer MBA programme in 1994; and in 2002 it was one of first batch of universities in China to offer EMBA programme. ZUEL has attached great importance to its MBA education and as such, put forward the guidelines of “Developing MBA education with the whole Institution’s support”. Then in 2000, ZUEL set up the MBA Education Center, giving it a school status. In 2004, based on the successful operation of the center, ZUEL founded the MBA School and authorized it to be only school offering MBA and EMBA programmes. As a business school in a university specializing in Finance and Economics, it runs the MBA education by insisting upon representing the features and advantages of its financial and legal disciplines.

The MBA School, responsible for teaching, scientific research and management, has set up the MBA Office, Financial Office, MBA Programme Office, EMBA Programme Office, EDP Programme Office, Career Development Office, Alumni Service Department, International Exchange Office, International Accreditation Office, 19 Open Teaching Sections and three research centres including Centre for Comparative Research of Chinese and Foreign MBA Education, “Chinese Finance” Management Cases Research Centre and Centre for Corporation Value Research.

The School currently offers a full-time MBA programme, a part-time MBA programme, a part-time EMBA programme and a non-degree EDP programme. The School is equipped with independent facilities, including classrooms, reference rooms, student apartments and so forth, exclusively for MBA and EMBA students. By the end of 2013, the School had conferred MBA degrees on more than 2,500 students and EMBA degrees on more than 1,500 students.

After more than 20 years of exploration and development, the reputation and value of the School have been widely recognized by the society. In Dec. 2009, Prof. Wang Haisu, the former dean of the School, was rewarded “the National Outstanding Administrator of MBA Education”. According to the 2012 MBA Education and Employment Guideline issued by QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) of Britain, the total enrollment and graduates respectively ranked the 8th and the 5th in China mainland. In accordance with the “2013 Most Influential MBA Billboard of China” issued by the magazine “World Entrepreneurs” under the umbrella of the World Manager Group, the EMBA programme of the School ranked the 8th on the list of “Most Influential EMBA Programmes of China” and the MBA ranked the 12th on the list of “Most Influential MBA Programmes of China”. In Aug. 2011, The MBA School passed the AMBA accreditation, which further enhances the operating level of MBA and EMBA programmes of the University, improves the education quality and the internationalization of the School and its programmes. By AMBA accreditation, the School, corporating the advanced MBA education standard with the disciplinary characteristics of the University, creates a new approach to MBA education which is both internationalized and deeply rooted in the business practice of the Chinese enterprises.

Brief introduction of MBA Faculty

From 2010 to 2013, the total number of the MBA School’s MBA and EMBA course teachers and thesis supervisors has reached 227. Among them, 173 teachers serve as course teachers and thesis supervisors in the MBA programmes, while 122 are in the EMBA programmes. Some teachers work for both programmes. There are 5 full-time teachers in the MBA School and 44 teachers from outside the Institution, the rest being teachers from other schools of ZUEL. The School manages the faculty members through the open teaching sections. From Table 1 to 2, highest degrees and professional titles of the faculty members are listed. Table 3 and 4 are lists of MBA and EMBA core faculty members.

National Experimental Teaching Centre of Economics and Management

The University possesses a “National Experimental Teaching Centre of Economics and management”. It includes one Economic Management Teaching Research Institute and over sixteen laboratories, including Finance and taxation, Public Economics, Macroeconomic analysis, Banking and securities, Financial engineering, Investment and project, Insurance and actuarial, Applied statistics, Electronic calculation, Manual Labour, E-commerce, Comprehensive simulation, Modern logistics, Merchandising and Science of Technology, UFIDA and Kingdee ERP laboratories. The overall area of the laboratories is about 3,860 square meters. It has 1,899 sets of apparatus and devices valued at RMB 15 million and sixteen suites of software. The Centre undertakes teaching, experiment and internship activities for students enrolled in relevant courses such as E-commerce, Business administration, Human resources management, Logistics management, Marketing, and International economy and trade. The centre is open to all the staff and students in the Institution, providing open-style experiments.

Business Administration Experimental Centre

In 2013, adapting itself to informinization of MBA education and distance MBA education, the School invested more than 3 million yuan to build “Business Administration Experimental Teaching Centre” to satisfy IT-oriented and distant teaching. Oracle and HAND Enterprise Solutions Co., Ltd, a nationally privileged IT consultation company, co-constructs the Lab with the School. ERP management software of Oracle is installed for co-developing “Simulated Comprehensive Management Experimental Course”.

Information Technology Support

As one of the first 100 universities in China to develop its intranet, ZUEL offers a stable and fast intranet service to students in each dorm, enabling students to search for up to date academic resources in a timely and convenient manner. All of the students in the University can not only visit library academic resources or e-data bases on campus but also can have a distant visit by account number.

The MBA School, by making use of information technology, has built the following platforms, such as Financial Management Platform, MBA Comprehensive Management Platform, EMBA Teaching Platform, Student Online Communication Platform, Student Learning Platform, Alumni Service Platform, etc. The School has also equipped its classrooms and library with IT facilities to provide efficient administrative service and convenient learning and communication between faculty and students.

Students & Campus

Facilities of the MBA School

Library and Research Facilities

Students in the MBA School can enjoy a ready access to academic resources and useful information in ZUEL's Library and libraries of other schools. They also enjoy online and paper academic literature in the MBA School Reference Room.

With 5,300 seats and a combined floor area of 48,000 square meters, ZUEL's Library actually consists of three libraries: Yifu Building on Nanhu campus, Shouyi Library on Shouyi campus and Wensu Building on Nanhu campus. There are currently 120 staff members, including four research librarians, seventeen associate research librarians and eighty general librarians. The Library is composed of eight functional sectors in terms of Document Resource Construction Section, Information Consultant Section, Network Technique Service Section, Readers’ Service (I, II, III), Library Office, and the Chinese Money and Finance History Museum. ZUEL has developed its electronic resources and enables users access to more than thirty two different kinds of database of periodicals and electronic books in both Chinese and foreign languages, including CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), Wanfang data, VIP, Ssrea der, Decent, Information Centre for Social Science of RUC, EBSCOhost, LexisNexis, Westlaw, etc. all available at the website of the Institution library, twenty four hours a day. In addition, it has also built its own electronic resources, including the Audio-Visual Podcasting, a database of thesis by ZUEL masters and PhDs, and a delivery system of CDs attached to books upon publishing. All users can make use of these resources without time restrictions through the Institution intranet.

Built in October of 2003, Yifu Library features user convenience and well-proportioned layout. With 3,000 seats, the library has ten Reading-rooms of different sizes, which are open to all users. Two Electronic Reading Rooms are equipped with more than 460 computers, for readers to search for on-line resources. Occupying 10,000 square meters, with 700 seats, the library on Shouyi campus has about 1 million volumes of various books and journals, among which 600,000 are available for lending. It now has a Readers’ Service Section III, responsible for the management and distribution of reference in Chinese and foreign languages on Shouyi campus.

All Reading Rooms and Delivery Rooms have implemented a “Full Open Service” model, providing integrated service of “collecting, lending, reading, consulting, searching and managing”. The library opens from 8am am to 10pm between Monday and Saturday, and from 8am to 5pm on Sundays. The MBA School has a Reference Room of its own with diverse professional journals and books. It also provides electronic surfing facilities.

In the recent three years, the School invested more than 10 million yuan in improving the campus environment as well as maintaining and renovating MBA teaching facilities. In 2012, the School invested more than 2 million yuan in renovating students’ dorms. In 2013, it invested nearly 3 million yuan in building the Multi-functional MBA Lab Centre. The annual investment on infrastructure facilities stays at 1 million yuan or so.