Shanghai Business School (SBS), formerly known as the East China Branch of the Tax Administration School of the Central Government (founded in 1950), is a public application-oriented undergraduate institution of higher education with a distinctive focus on business studies. The school fully implements the national educational policy and remains true to the original aspiration of cultivating talents for the party and the country. The school has adhered to a “business-rooted and application-centered” education philosophy, and upheld the school motto of “strive for virtue and erudition, devote to economic prosperity and social responsibility”. The school is devoted to developing “applied, innovative, and international” school-running features, cultivating high-quality application-oriented business talents with professional attainment, practical ability, innovative spirit, international view, and a strong sense of social responsibility, and building a high-level application-oriented business school. In October 2021, with the approval of the State Council Academic Degrees Committee, the school was approved as a master’s degree-granting unit, achieving a major breakthrough in school-running level.

Currently the school has three campuses (Fengpu Campus, Xuhui Campus, and Guoquan Road Campus) and one school point at Fuzhou Road, and boasts nearly 8,000 full-time students. Currently, the school has a total of 787 teaching and administrative staff members, including one expert enjoying special government subsidy from the State Council, two teachers elected as members of the Ministry of Education’s Steering Committee on Higher Educational Institutions, one “Leading Talent in Shanghai”, and ten winners of the Shanghai Municipal-level Outstanding Teacher Award and the Baosteel Outstanding Teacher Award. In the past five years, SBS has also won a total of 8 first and second prizes of the municipal teaching achievement award, and offered over 60 municipal-level key, top-quality, and model courses. It has offered 30 regular undergraduate specialties for 2021. To be specific, its business administration, hospitality management, e-commerce, international economics and trade, logistics management are national-level first-class undergraduate specialties; its finance, computer science and technology, marketing, business economics, food quality and safety, information management and information system, accounting, and tourism management are Shanghai municipal-level first-class undergraduate specialties; its taxation and eight other specialties are application-oriented undergraduate experimental specialties in institutions of higher learning under Shanghai municipality; its business administration, hospitality management, e-commerce, and marketing have passed ACBSP international certification, realizing the full coverage of new liberal arts, engineering and agricultural projects of the Ministry of Education. For the past five years, the students of SBS have won more than 1,100 national awards in the National Selection Competition for the WorldSkills Competition, the “Challenge Cup”, and many other disciplinary (specialty) competitions. Moreover, SBS has a stable graduate employment rate of above 96%.

By continuously deepening the connotations of discipline construction, the school aims to accelerate disciplinary special zone construction and create a business discipline system based on applied economics and business administration and characterized by interdisciplinary coordinated development. Its applied economics is a class-II plateau discipline at Shanghai municipal level; and its business administration has been included under Shanghai Higher Education Institutions First-Class Discipline (Class B) Construction Program. So far, the school has two master’s degree authorization points in tourism management and international business. Over the past five years, the school has undertaken more than 70 scientific research projects at or above the provincial or ministerial level (subsidized by the National Social Science Foundation of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Science Fund, and so forth), and won 10 provincial or ministerial-level scientific research awards, including Shanghai Municipality Research Achievements Award for Decision-making Consultation.

Focusing on national and local strategic demands and major industrial demands, the school has deepened its comprehensive strategic cooperation with Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, and launched a series of commercial (business) application research and consultation services. It has also developed multiple municipal-level scientific research bases and platforms, such as Shanghai Institute of Commercial Development, University Think Tank of Shanghai, Shanghai Social Science Innovative Research Base, Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Universities of Shanghai, and University Knowledge Service Platform of Shanghai. It has also received replies from provincial and ministerial leaders concerning over 70 research achievements for business decision-making consultation in the past five years. The MOFCOM Training Base for International Business Officials (Shanghai), established by the Ministry of Commerce at SBS, has offered training to a cumulative total of 5,700 business officials from more than 100 countries (regions) worldwide.

Clinging to the principle of open schooling, the school never ceases to enhance its international reputation and influence. For the purpose of introducing high-quality business education resources, it has jointly set up the College of Shanghai Lausanne Hospitality Management (officially approved by the Ministry of Education in May 2021) with EHL, making a substantial breakthrough in Sino-foreign cooperative school running. It has successively launched cooperation and exchanges with nearly 90 research institutions and institutions of higher learning in the US, the UK, Australia, and many other countries and regions, initiated the founding of the “Belt and Road” International Business Education Alliance, led the formation of the International Alliance of High-end Business Think Tanks, and established its Overseas Education Base in Central and Eastern Europe.

The school lays emphasis on the inheritance of traditional commercial culture and the cultivation of the core socialist values. It has built Chinese Commercial Culture Exhibition Hall and Shanghai-style Commercial Culture Research Institute, and produced a range of business culture-themed feature films, such as Centennial History of Commerce in Shanghai, Centennial History of Retails, and Centennial History of Trade. The school has also undertaken the interview and selection activities of the Chinese Poetry Competition (Seasons II and III) in Shanghai. In addition, the school has received many honors, including the “Silver Prize of the 2nd Chinese Youth Volunteer Service Project Competition” sponsored by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, “National Defense Education Characteristic School Elected by the Ministry of Education”, “2019 Excellent Organization Award of Chinese Classics Recitation, Writing, and Speaking Contest Sponsored by the Ministry of Education”, and the “1st Civilized Campus in Shanghai”.

The school has exerted itself to create a smart campus, developed multiple smart applications based on “banking service system” and other service modes and mindsets, and taken the lead in logistics information technology construction and services. The major honors it has won include “Excellent Demonstration Unit for Logistics Information Technology Construction at Institutions of Higher Learning Nationwide”, “Award for Top 10 Innovative Applications in Smart City Construction of Shanghai”, and “Bench-marking School for Education Information Technology Applications in Shanghai”.

Standing at a new historical starting point, the school will fully integrate into the national strategy of the new era and the construction of “Five Centers” and “Four Brands” of Shanghai, deepen the connotation of international cooperation in running schools, and effectively strengthen the collaborative innovation of business education in the “Belt and Road Initiative”, striving to turn SBS into a high-level application-oriented business school with distinctive characteristics.