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”, which are the Chinese government’s endeavor aiming at strengthening institutions of higher education and key disciplinary areas as a national priority. ZUEL is composed of two campus, one (the Nanhu campus) is located in the bank of picturesque Nanhu lake, another lies at the foot of historic site－ Yellow Crane Tower.

        ZUEL has a long history and makes a steady and fast development. The predecessor of this university is Zhongyuan University which was established 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 L aw and School of Law of Wuhan University were amalgamated to form the Hubei University. During the “cultural revolution”, the education career was seriously damaged. In 1971, Hubei University was renamed as Hubei College Training School of Finance and Economics, which, under the approval of Hubei province, was later renamed as Hubei Institute of Finance and Economics, becoming one of the first institutes of higher education, which has recovered the right to enroll undergraduates and postgraduates. 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.

        ZUEL has abundant qualified teachers and has achieved striking science and research results. At present, the university has 20 schools including School of Marxism, School of Philosophy, School of Economics, School of Public Finance and Taxation, School of Finance, Law School, Criminal Justice School, School of Foreign Languages, School of Journalism and Culture Communication, School of Business Administration, School of Accounting (Center of MPAcc), School of Public Administration (MPA Center), School of Statistics and Mathematics, School of Information Security Engineering, Wenlan School, School of Intellectual Property Rights, MBA School, School of Continuing Education (School of Online Education), International Education School and China and South Korea Institute of New Media (DSU).

        Up to now, our faculty has reached over 2400 members, among which there are about 1500 full-time teachers.There are over 270 professors, more than 580 associate professors and over 200 doctoral supervisors in our teachers’ team. There are now three Chang Jiang Scholars, two  Young Yangtze Scholars , 22 “Chutian Scholars” and 69 Wenlan Scholars from domestic and abroad. Besides, two peoples have been listed in the Ten Thousand Talent Program as the leading talents in the area of philosophy and social science, two selected as 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, eight listed in the  New Century Talents Project , eleven elected as the member of the Teaching Advisory Board under the Ministry of  Education, over twenty persons listed in the  New Century Excellent Talents Supporting Plan of the Education Ministry  and the Fok Ying Tung young teacher fund. Our school has one nationwide famous teacher in higher education, 77 experts enjoys the special allowances of the State Council, 30 provincial New Century High-level Talents of Hubei province, 48 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 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 1000 items of key projects at state and provincial level. Among which 500 items were the key projects funded by the State Social Science Fund, the State Natural Science Fund, the Educational Department respectively, 400 of these being the science and research projects were sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Science and Technology. Over 13,000 in total research contributions have been made, including more than 800 monographs, more than 800 complied works and textbooks, and more than 11,000 papers. In particular, in 2003, the acquisition of nine prizes of the “Excellent Achievement of Scientific Research in Institutes of Higher Education” which represents the top-level research ability in the area of Humanities and Social Sciences, giving fully demonstration of the top science and research ability in the area of Humanities and Social Sciences of our school.

        ZUEL has a comprehensive training system and high teaching quality. The university serves over 20,000 full-time undergraduate students, over 7,000 graduate students, over 1,000 doctoral candidates, over 10,000 adult students and over 400 international students admitted every year.  ZUEL, with economics, law, and management as its core disciplines, coordinating with other disciplines, has developed a comprehensive talents training system by strengthening advantage disciplines, building brand majors, promoting high-quality curriculums, providing high-quality textbooks and improving more qualified teachers.

        At present, the university has 56 undergraduate programs, 15 first-level master programs, 89 secondary master programs, 6 first-level doctoral programs, 53 secondary doctoral programs and 6 post-doctoral programs. The University owns four national key disciplines, one national key discipline, and ten key disciplines of provincial level in Hubei province; there are six Comprehensive Reform Pilot Projects on majors at State Level, five Comprehensive Reform Pilot Projects on majors at Provincial Level, and five majors for talents cultivating of strategic emerging (pillar)Industry in institutes of higher education; there are three bases of the first batch of Outstanding Legal Talents Cultivating program , selected by the Ministry of Education in the university, namely,  The Inter-Disciplinary and Application-Oriented Legal Talents Training base, The Grassroots Legal Talents Training Base in Western region, and The Foreign-Related Legal Talents Training base; there are three National Experimental Teaching Demonstrating Centers and more than 310 practice bases has been established for student’s practice and internship ; In 2011, the university established the School of Entrepreneurship. In recent years, ZUEL has implemented over 400 Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship training programs at national level and more than 300 programs at University level as well as over 2000 Graduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship training programs.     

        The university attaches great importance to the teaching quality and takes talents cultivating as our priority. It has established a series of scientific educational concepts like “taking the student at first”, “comprehensive development”, “strengthening its special programs and coordinated development” and stresses the talent cultivating methods of “integration, innovation and openness”. On the one hand, the university has opened some special programs like Business and Trade English, Law English, Law Journalism, Economic Journalism, Judicial Accounting, Business Ethics, Economics of Law and Economic Investigation. On the other hand, 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, which has greatly promoted the interconnection and integration of the three disciplines of Economics, Law and Management. At present, there are 6 national exquisite video open classes, 2 provincial exquisite video open classed, 12 national exquisite resource sharing classes and 10 provincial exquisite resource sharing classes. In order to improve the comprehensive quality of students, foster student’s innovative ability, scientific understanding and  team spirit and create a sound culture atmosphere on campus, the university, apart from putting great effort to improve the teaching quality, has also sponsored or hosted and participated in a serial of national or regional undergraduate student competitions and has made excellent performance. As one of the biggest bases for the training of talents of Economics and Law, over the past half a century, ZUEL has developed an idea of running a special university and makes it on the top. Correspondingly, the university has developed a special talent cultivating mode, enjoying a core competition for talent cultivation. The employment rate and employment level of our graduates are both keep high.