A Century-old Business School in A Millennium-old Educational Institution
The Business School of Hunan University is located at the foot of picaresque Yuelu Mountain and on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River. The school has carried forward the thousand-year cultural heritage of Yuelu Academy. In 1911, its predecessor, the Hunan Public Instruction Institute for Commercial Teachers, was founded, which pioneered the establishment of an independent commercial discipline in the country. In 1912, it was renamed as the Hunan Higher School of Commerce, where late Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong studied with the ambition of "study hard to become a commercial expert". After several relocations and renaming, in 1916, the school was renamed as the Hunan Public Commercial School. In 1926, it joined the Hunan Public School of Law and Politics and the Hunan Public Polytechnic College for joint education on the basis of Yuelu Academy, together forming Hunan University. In 1946, the National Business College, the only of its kind in China in that period, was incorporated into Hunan University. Hunan University thus established the Business College, which then became one of the important business education bases in China. In July 2000, the Business School of Hunan University was officially established. A large number of famed business teachers, such as Li Da, Cao Dianqiu, Hu Yuantan, Ren Kainan, and Yang Duanliu, have taught at the school. More than 100,000 students graduated from here, represented by Mao Zedong, Xie Juezai, Peng Huang, Yi Lirong and Gan Siqi.
Currently, there are seven subjects in six departments, namely, Management Science, Business Administration, Marketing, Information Management and E-commerce, Accounting, and Financial Management. All these seven subjects have been approved as the national-level first-class undergraduate subjects. The school has a researcher team supported by the national Natural Science Fund for Creative Research Groups; a key laboratory of the Ministry of Education for high-performance distributed ledger and digital finance; a virtual teaching and research office of the Ministry of Education for marketing subject; and, three provincial-level key laboratories – Laboratory on Enterprise Management and Decision-making Support Technology, Laboratory on Intelligent Decision-making Technology for Emergency Management, and Laboratory on Data Science and Blockchain. Beyond that, it also has 15 interdisciplinary research institutes and innovation teams, including the Research Institute for Digital Society and Blockchain and the Research Center for Resource and Environmental Management.
The Business School has a high-level faculty across the disciplines of management, economics, information science, and mathematics. More than 60% of the faculty members have studied or been engaged in research work in Europe and the United States. The school provides first-level doctoral programs and postdoctoral research centers in two subjects – business administration and management science and engineering. It also has three master's degree programs for MBA, EMBA, and MPAcc. A complete three-level talent cultivation system covering bachelor's degree, master's degree, and doctoral degree programs has been established.
The Business School adheres to the principle of putting students first and comprehensively promotes the construction of "Double First- Class" initiative. The overall strength and influence of the disciplines have been significantly improved. The Business School won first and second prizes of the National Teaching Achievements Award for three consecutive sessions. Its disciplines ranked around 200th in the global rankings by the Times Higher Education, US News, and ShanghaiRanking. The discipline of Business Administration ranked 12th and was among the top 10% (A-) in the third and fourth discipline assessments by the Ministry of Education respectively. In June 2021, six subjects—Business Administration, Marketing, E-commerce, Information Management and Information System, Accounting, and Financial Management—were graded at A (ranking in the top 10% in China), or A+ (ranking in the top 2% in China), in ShanghaiRanking’s Chinese Majors Ranking. All six subjects have been approved as national first-class undergraduate subjects. In 2024, the school launched a new undergraduate subject—Big Data Management and Application. The disciplines of Economics & Business and General Social Sciences have entered the global top 1% in the ESI (Essential Science Indicators) for several times. Following its accreditation by AACSB International, the school has received reaccreditation by AMBA for the maximum five-year period for the third time, and is now in the final stage of EQUIS accreditation.
The school adheres to the principle of open and cooperative education, aiming to cultivate first-class business talents with a global perspective. It has received accreditation from the AACSB International. For the third time, its AMBA accreditation has been renewed for a period of 5 years, which is the maximum duration. Furthermore, its EQUIS accreditation process has entered the final stage. It has established international research centers with the University of Michigan, University of Illinois, University of Southern California, and other world-class universities to carry out in-depth cooperation in academic research. It has signed all-round cooperation agreements with 46 high-level universities in the United States, UK, France, and other countries to establish overseas academic exchange bases. It has also set up special funds to support students' overseas internships and academic visits.
The school will continue to adhere to the central position of talent cultivation, strengthen the construction and characteristic development of business studies, refine undergraduate education, and explore innovative teaching modes. In addition, it will continuously improve the quality of training leading pragmatic business talents in the new era and comprehensively advance the construction of a world-class business school with Chinese characteristics and rich historical and cultural inheritance.
