The history of the Department of International Economics and Trade (DIET) of USST Business School can be traced back to the 1930s, when it was established as the School of Commerce of University of Shanghai, and has been developed on the basis of the undergraduate program “Industrial Foreign Trade” established by the former Business School in the 1990s. The International Economics and Trade is one of the few majors in China that is accredited by AACSB which is the top certification of international business schools. The DIET leads a new mode of education with the featured “International Class” and adopts the dual-degree training mode with other universities such as Brest Business School (BBS) in France. The Chinese and foreign teachers teach in full English, forming a unique international training advantage of the DIET. In addition, the DIET enhances the concept of innovation and entrepreneurship education with “Professional Competitions”. The innovation and entrepreneurship competition team of the DIET has guided Chinese and foreign students across colleges, majors and grades to participate in a number of domestic and international professional competitions, and achieved excellent results. The competition builds a high-level and large-scale platform for teaching-industry connection, school-enterprise cooperation and practical teaching, which strengthens academic exchanges at home and abroad. The successful hosting of the competition promotes the development of international teaching and practice in international economics and trade, and reserves high-quality talents for the construction plan of Shanghai’s “five centers”. Meanwhile, the DIET provides support for cultivating applied talents with strong ability in international economics and trade, building the Business School into a high-level international demonstration school, and improving the internationalization level of AACSB accreditation. In 2017, the DIET is highly evaluated by experts in many aspects such as faculty, discipline construction, teaching, innovative and entrepreneurial activities, and finally passed the independent assessment of undergraduate majors with excellent results.

Educational Objectives

In line with the deep open development of “The Belt and Road initiative” and the requirements of foreign trade development, taking advantage of the geographical location of the Yangtze River Delta and Shanghai, and the practical strengths of science and technology colleges, the DIET cultivates high-quality international economic and trade professionals with international vision, systematic thinking, innovation, teamwork and social responsibility, who have the solid grasp of economic theory and practical strengths, and who are able to adapt to the development trend of internet plus, big data and other intelligent modern technology, and who are well-rounded in moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic development, and are able to perform various jobs in related fields with high quality.

Key Research Areas and Achievements

The DIET has a high-level research team, and its research in recent years has focused on four key areas: international trade, regional economics, environmental economics, and industrial economics. In the past five years, the teaching and research staff have successively presided over more than 20 national and provincial research projects, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Humanities and Social Sciences Project of Ministry of Education, the National and Regional Research Project of Ministry of Education, the Shanghai Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project, the Shanghai University Think Tank Connotation Construction Project, the Shanghai Scientific Research Innovation Project, and the National Soft Science Research Project of Ministry of Science and Technology. The teaching and research staff have also undertaken several horizontal projects of policy consultation related to local economic development. In recent years, teachers of the DIET have published more than 200 papers in domestic and international authoritative academic journals, including more than 40 papers in SCI/SSCI/EI, more than 60 papers in CSSCI and the Peking University core journal of China, and more than 10 monographs.

Admissions

Undergraduate Program: International Economics and Trade

Postgraduate Programs: International Trade, Regional Economics, Industrial Economics, International Business

Faculty 

There are 26 full-time faculty members, including three members with senior titles, 12 teachers with associate titles, 23 members with doctoral degrees, accounting for 88.5% of the total; 11 members with overseas study or work experience, accounting for 42.3% of the total; 17 members under the age of 45, accounting for 65.4% of the total.