Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (ZUEL) is an institute of higher education directly administrated by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China with economics, law, and management as its core disciplines and coordinated with other six disciplines including philosophy, literature, history, science, engineering, and art. ZUEL is also one of the universities sponsored by “211 project” and “985 Project Innovation Platform”, and has been selected into the list of universities and colleges which will participate in the country’s construction plan of world-class universities and world-class disciplines (‘Double World-Class’ ).

ZUEL has a long history and makes a steady and fast development. The predecessor of this university is Zhongyuan University which was established in 1948 during the War of Liberation by Central Plains Bureau of the Center Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) with Deng Xiaoping as the first General Secretary and the second General Secretary Chen Yi as the director of Preparatory Committee. During the adjustment of national institutions of higher learning in 1953, amalgamating with other institutes’ disciplines of Finance and Economics, Politics and Law in six provinces of South Central China, Zhongnan Institute of Finance and Economics and Zhongnan Institute of Politics and Law were founded respectively at the base of Zhongyuan University of Finance and Economics and Zhongyuan University of Politics and Law. In 1958, Zhongnan Institute of Finance and Economics, Zhongnan Institute of Politics and Law together with Zhongnan Cadre School of Politics and Law and School of Law of Wuhan University were amalgamated to form the Hubei University. In 1971, Hubei University was renamed as Hubei College Training School of Finance and Economics, which was renamed as Hubei Institute of Finance and Economics in January 1978, becoming one of the first institutes of higher education to resume undergraduate and graduate enrollment. In January 1979, with the approval of the State Council of China, Hubei Institute of Finance and Economics was jointly administered by the Ministry of Finance and Hubei province with the former playing the leading role. In December 1984, based on the Law School Department of Hubei Institute of Finance and Economics, Zhongnan Institute of Politics and Law was reestablished and administered by the Ministry of Justice. In September 1985, Hubei Institute of Finance and Economics was renamed as Zhongnan University of Finance and Economics, the new name of which was inscribed by Deng Xiaoping in person. In February 2000, the State Council of China approved the plan submitted by Ministry of Education on amalgamating Zhongnan University of Finance and Economics and Zhongnan Institute of Politics and Law into Zhongnan University of Economics and Law that will be formally founded on May 26th, 2000. In September 2005, ZUEL became one of the universities sponsored by “211 Project”. In June 2011, ZUEL entered into the line of those universities sponsored by “985 Project Innovation Platform”. In October 2012, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance and Hubei Provincial People’s Government formally signed an agreement working together to build ZUEL. In September 2017, ZUEL was listed into “Double World-Class” universities.

ZUEL has abundant qualified teachers and has achieved striking science and research results. Up to now, our faculty has reached over 2400 members, among which there are about 1400 full-time teachers, over 300 professors, more than 560 associate professors and over 190 doctoral supervisors. Five people were selected as the celebrity of culture and in the talent program of “Excellent Person in Four Fields” supported by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, ninehave been listed in the “Ten Thousand Talent Program”, eight were elected as the member of the Teaching Advisory Board under the Ministry of Education, ten were awarded the title of National Model Teacher, National Outstanding Teacher, National Outstanding Educator or Top National Higher Education Teacher, 82 experts enjoys the special allowances of the State Council, 31 were selected in the “New Century High-level Talents of Hubei province”, 56 were awarded as Young Experts Who Make an Outstanding Contribution to Hubei Province and by Special Government Allowance of Hubei Province. In recent years, the number of programs funded by the National Social Science Fund in our university ranks the top among the institutes of higher education in our country, No.1 among the institutes of economics or law. Over the latest decades, teachers in ZUEL have been assigned and accomplished over 1300 items of key projects at state and provincial level, and made over 14,000 in total research contributions.

ZUEL has a comprehensive training system and high teaching quality. The university now serves over 20,000 full-time undergraduate students, over 8,000 graduate students, over 1,300 doctoral candidates, over 500 international students and over 6,500 adult students. The university has 58 undergraduate programs, 17 first-level master programs, seven first-level doctoral programs, six post-doctoral programs. We own four national key disciplines, one national key discipline, four National Experimental Teaching Demonstrating Centers and three bases of the first batch of “Outstanding Legal Talents Cultivating program”.

ZUEL stresses the talent cultivating methods of“integration, innovation and openness”. The university firstly opens the three compulsory programs of the A General Introduction to Economics, A General Introduction to Law, A General Introduction to Management in public basic course of the colleges of the country. We set up some special courses like Business and Trade English, Legal English, Law Journalism, Economic Journalism, Judicial Accounting, Business Ethics, Economics of Law and Economic Investigation. Besides, we also offer Double Degree Talents Cultivating program in law-economics and economics-statistics, which has greatly promoted the interconnection and integration of the three disciplines of Economics, Law and Management. ZUEL actively explores a special talent cultivating mode, founds Wenlan School of Business, the platform of cultivating innovative talents, and sets up experimental classes for the training of talents of Economics and Law in a number of schools. ZUEL focuses on building the brand of the second classroom activities such as academic research, innovation and entrepreneurship, humanity and art, public service. The employment rate and employment level of our graduates have both improved steadily.

ZUEL has a strong sense of responsibility to serve society. The university sticks to combine the scientific research with the social services, and establishes a development strategy that “emphasizes social services, focuses on advantageous fields, adheres to openness and coordination, and pursues first-class achievements”. Through the benign interaction with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Justice, State Administration of Taxation, National Bureau of Statistics, National Intellectual Property Administration and Development Research Centre of the State Council, we establish a brand of intelligent service in supporting the country’s financial reform, legal construction, financial innovation, intelligent property protection, and social governance, and spare no effort in building a batch of high-quality think tank. The university now owns one Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences sponsored by Ministry of Education, one Innovative Team by Ministry of Education, three bases of the Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (‘111 Plan’), two provincial Collaborative Innovation Centers, three provincial think tanks, eight Key Research Bases of Humanities and Social Sciences authorized by Hubei Province and over 20 Industry research bases co-established with the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and other organs. In 2016, ZUEL won first place in the national 211 university think tanks’ MRPA assessment released by Chinese Think Tank Index (CTTI) with a comprehensive score of 100 points. In 2018, five think tanks of our university charted the “Top 100 CTTI University Think Tanks” and the number and quality of selected think tanks ranked second in the colleges of the country. Up to now, we have had six think tanks included in CTTI source think tanks. The university has actively carried out social cooperation with enterprises for education and collaborative innovation. For instance, Construction Bank School was built according to the cooperation agreement signed with China Construction Bank, realizing the win-win cooperation between the bank and the university and building a new type of industry-university-research strategic alliance partnership. Besides, the university undertakes the scoring works of CPA examination, judicial examination and technical qualification examination in accounting specialty.

ZUEL has made active exchanges with other countries, enjoying a higher level of internationalization.The university has built a wide relationship with over 100 colleges and scientific and research institutions in over 20 countries and regions. We built the Sino-Italian Law Research Center and Sino-Italian Academy with Sapienza University of Rome, Research Center of Chinese Income Distribution Austrian Branch and Serbian Branch with the University of Novi Sad in Serbia and the University of Applied Sciences of Upper Austria, Sino-French industrial upgrading and regional financial research center with Rennes School of Business, and Field Experiment Research Center with the University of Nottingham. The university has actively supported the teachers to carry out international research cooperation projects and participated in the “Roman Jurists” project of European Research Council. Several professors of our university serve as consultants to the Ministry of Finance's World Bank loan project. We also initiate or join a number of regional university alliances, and held a Sino-foreign educational cooperation program with Sapienza University of Rome from Italy and Dongseo University from South Korea. The university has built the Confucius Institutes with Stony Brook University of America. ZUEL has signed student exchange agreements with dozens of universities, including the University of Glasgow, to set up international joint degree programs, and over 1,200 of our students study abroad every year. In addition, ZUEL is awarded the National Quality Certification for Study in China, and has two national brand courses taught in English for international students. Our International Doctoral Students Academic Forum Project is approved by the brand activity “Experience China” of China Scholarship Council.

ZUEL has the well-functioned infrastructure and sound school conditions. The university is composed of two campuses, one (the Nanhu campus) is located in the bank of picturesque Nanhu lake, another (the Shouyi campus) lies at foot ofthe historic site－ Yellow Crane Tower. It covers an area of over 2800 mu (187 hectares), and has a combined floor space of 1,200,000 square meters. The university has a collection of over 9.93 million volumes in its libraries as well as 81 Chinese and foreign language academic literature resource database and 416 sub-databases. The auditorium is comparable to the professional theatre and the sports ground was used as the main sports field for the fourth National University Games and the stadium for China League. The campus is decorated with numerous trees and beautiful lakes, presenting a picturesque scene.

Over the past 70 years, about 400,000 students of different levels and types have graduated from the university and the quality of them is widely well recognized and appraised. Among the graduates, many of them have becomesenior leaders, academic elites, and business tycoons who are setting the trend of the time. As socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, ZUEL will spare no effort in building a “high-level humanities and social science university with distinctive characteristics”, making its due contribution to accelerate the modernization of education, build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful and realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation!