College of Economics and Management (Business College) is a traditional advantageous college of Shandong Agricultural University. It was initiated in 1906 by such courses as Source of Financial Management, Agricultural Finance and Finance of Shandong Higher Agricultural School, proposed in 1947 by the Department of Agricultural Economics and witnessed in 1949 by the Cooperative Class and Accounting Class of Shandong Provincial College of Agriculture. It is one of the earliest economic and management departments in Shandong Province. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Shandong Agricultural College established a teaching and research guidance group during the adjustment and integration period in 1952. By 1956, the group had developed from the initial 3 to 35, among which, the Agricultural Economy Teaching and Research Group was set up under the Department of Agronomy, offering courses such as Agricultural Economy, Bookkeeping, Statistics, Socialist Enterprise Organization and Statistics of Variables. In 1959, the College Standing Committee decided to recruit agricultural economy undergraduates from 1960, and established the Department of Agricultural Economy in August that year. The college began to recruit bachelor degree candidates in 1960, master degree candidates in 1987 and doctoral candidates in 1999. Over the past 60 years, the college had cultivated a large number of leading talents in politics, business, education and other industries to meet the development needs of the times. At present, it had developed into a high-level first-class college which integrates economics, management and business, and has a multilevel talent training system for bachelors, masters, doctors and postdoctoral students.

Long History with Profound Cultural Background

In 1960, Shandong Agricultural College, the predecessor of Shandong Agricultural University, took the lead in setting up the undergraduate program of Agricultural Economy and Management in China, and it recruited two sessions of undergraduates in 1960 and 1961 respectively. In 1978, after the national college entrance examination system was restored, Shandong Agricultural College resumed the Department of Agricultural Economy and Management. The first department head was Mr. Bu Xianji, a famous agricultural economist and educator. In October 1993, College of Agricultural Economy and Management was established and renamed as College of Economics and Trade. At that time, it set up two undergraduate programs of Agricultural Economics and Management, Accounting, and three junior college programs of Rural Finance, Township Enterprise Management and Trade Economy. In December 1999, teaching and research office of Water Conservancy Economics, Engineering Economics and Finance of Shandong Water Conservancy College were merged into the college. In December 2000, College of Economics and Trade changed its name into College of Economics and Management, with three undergraduate programs of Agricultural Economy and Management, Accounting and Business Administration. In June 2007, the Department of Economics and Management of Shandong Forestry School was integrated. In August 2018, it was renamed as College of Economics and Management (Business College) due to the development needs. Since its founding, the college has cultivated 1600 full-time junior college students, 18000 full-time undergraduate students, 1900 postgraduate students,200 doctoral students, 6600 students of double majors and double degrees, and 47000 part-time academic education students. The 60-year history has formed the college culture of “Innovation, Openness, Inclusiveness and Sharing” and the college character of “Enjoying, Learning, Application and Disciplining”.

Strong Faculty, High Teaching and Research Platform

The college has 120 staff, including 94 full-time teachers. Among the professional teachers, there are 25 professors, 9 doctoral supervisors, 40 associate professors, 34 master tutors, 1 Young and Middle-aged Province-ranking Experts with Outstanding Contribution, 8 Shandong Industrial Economic Post Experts in Modern Agricultural Industrial Technology System Innovation Team, and 2 Shandong High-end Think Tank Talents. The research achievements of many experts are at the leading level of domestic counterparts.

The college has a high teaching and research platform. It has a number of provincial scientific research and think tank platforms, such as Shandong Think Tank and Investigation Center of Provincial Situation on Agriculture, Rural Areas and Farmers, Shandong Key Research Base of Rural Economy and Management, Shandong Think Tank Center of Agricultural Resources and Ecological Security Research, and several provincial research and think tank platforms of Shandong agricultural economic society. It also has a number of university level platforms and research teams, such as Rural Economy and Social Culture Research Center, Agricultural Brand Research Center, Leisure Agriculture and Cultural Tourism Industry Collaborative Development Research Center, Intelligent Accounting Research Center, Digital Finance Research Center, Enterprise Management Research Center, Digital Economy Research Center, Agricultural Products Trade Research Center, etc.. In the past five years, the college had applied for 16 projects of National Natural Science Foundation and National Social Science Foundation, 7 Humanities and Social Sciences Research Projects of the Ministry of Education, 21 provincial projects, published 370 high-level academic papers and 15 academic monographs. It had undertaken more than 20 provincial, municipal and county-level rural revitalization strategic planning, park planning, industrial planning and other kinds of planning, and many think tank reports had been approved by leaders of the provincial Party committee and the provincial government. Over the past five years, it had accumulated scientific research funds of more than 15 million yuan.

Complete Discipline Category, High-Level Personnel Training

The college has the earliest first-class discipline doctoral program and postdoctoral mobile station in Management in Shandong Province, three first-class discipline master programs in Agriculture and Forestry Economy and Management, Applied Economics and Business Administration, and four professional master programs, namely, Master of Agronomy, Master of Accounting, Master of Public Administration, and Master of Finance. At present, there are 11 undergraduate programs in Agriculture and Forestry Economics and Management, Accounting, Business Administration, International Economics and Trade, Finance, Engineering Management, Economics, Financial Management, Marketing, Tourism Management and Asset Evaluation. Among them, Agriculture and Forestry Economics and Management is the National First-class Undergraduate Program Construction Point. Finance is the Provincial First-class Undergraduate Program Construction Point and High-level Application-oriented Undergraduate Construction Program (group) of Shandong Province. The college has recruited public-funded agricultural students since 2018. There are 4550 undergraduates, 450 postgraduates and 39 doctoral students.

The college adheres to running school openly and has established cooperative relations with more than a dozen overseas universities such as the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, Lithuania and Slovenia.

Mature Teaching and Educating Mechanism, High Enrollment and Employment Rate

Closely centering on the college orientation and talent training objectives, the college takes the personality development as the starting point, takes the social demand as the guidance, and takes the ability training as the main line to cultivate high-quality talents who can meet the social needs and have competitiveness. 60-year history has optimized and formed a talent training mechanism of “Knowledge, Ability and Personality”.

The employment rate of all previous undergraduates remains above 90%, and graduates 100%. About 40% of the fresh graduates have been admitted as postgraduates both at home and abroad, civil servants, selected students,staff members in public institutions. There are also a group of young students who actively combine their majors with enterprises, industries and trades to realize their life aspirations in the business world. The college has cultivated hundreds of outstanding alumni of Shandong Agricultural University, including Han Jun, Sun Zhonghua, Qu Futian; Zhu Xinkai,vice president of Renmin University of China and Yangtze River scholar;  MaHengyun, Yangtze River scholar; Yu Miaomiao, National MeritStudent; Zhang Xuan, representative of the 16th National Communist Youth League; and hundreds of well-known entrepreneurs.

New Campus, Further Development; New Goals, More Endeavor

In September 2020, the college moved to the new campus built according to the standards of the first-class business school in China. Standing at the new starting point of development, College of Economics and Management will consciously practice the motto of “Ascending is to be Abased ”, carry forward the college culture of “Innovation, Openness, Inclusiveness and Sharing”, inherit the college character of “Enjoying, Learning, Applying and Disciplining”, deeply cultivate the talent training mechanism of “Knowledge, Ability and Personality”. We are committed to promoting talent cultivation, scientific research, social service and cultural heritage, and building a world-famous and domestic first-class College of Economics and Management (Business School).