On June 23rd 2017, FISF was founded in response to the soaring development of the financial industry in China. Over the last five years, we have been constantly striving for the goal of building FISF into a world-leading financial school that best understands Chinese finance and economy.

During the endeavor of these five years, FISF has upheld the school-running mission of “broadening the global vision, serving national financial strategies, shaping top financial talents and achieving leading financial think tanks,” and gathering academic leaders with great influence and creativity in the fields of global finance, economy and management, making contributions to the uprising of China’s financial industry and the construction of Shanghai International Financial Center.

During the fruitful five years, FISF has managed to recruit and organize a top international teaching team consisting of 55 people, with 70 academic papers written by 26 professors successively accepted to be published on international level-A journals, over 50 officially released thinktank achievements with both policy and social influence, a variety of academic and non-academic programs widely recognized by all walks of life, nearly 400 graduates who have already been actively contributing to the innovative development of Chinese finance by working in various fields of the financial industry in China. Meanwhile, the school has also successfully assisted the applied economics of Fudan University in being selected as a national "double first-class" discipline.

With the sun rising and tide waving between the wide sea and sky, FISF has set sail at the right moment. Upon the historical crossroads of the “two centenary goals,” the school has built up strength and spread its wings, ready to celebrate its five years of prosperity with joy and continue to achieve brilliant achievements in a high spirit.

Hereby we give our sincere thanks to Fudan University, China Oceanwide Holdings Group and folks from all walks of life for your support for FISF and assistance in promoting the school to sail far and smoothly in pursuit of high-quality development.

The Five Stars Shining Brightly

High-quality Party construction leading FISF to compose a brilliant chapter

During the past five years, FISF has upheld the purpose of serving the party and the people, lifting the torch of faith and firmly implementing the fundamental task of building virtue and cultivating people. By building itself on the Chinese land and inheriting the red genes, the school aims to offer strong support for the uprising of China’s financial industry and the construction of the Shanghai International Financial Center and constantly providing high-quality financial think tank and talents.

On April 30th 2021, the FISF General Party Branch was officially established, further enhancing the cohesion and centripetal force of its Party building in terms of organizational and institutional construction. Under the leadership of the higher Party committee, the FISF General Party Branch has thoroughly studied and implemented various guidelines and policies, stimulated the leading and exemplary role of Party members and comrades in their respective jobs, and, with the focus on the promotion of ideological construction, political construction and student work, actively created characteristic Party building so as to ensure the high-quality development of FISF under the guidance and guarantee of rich and diverse and high-quality party construction. As of May 2022, the FISF General Party Branch has developed into 109 members, including 42 faculty members and 67 student members.

The school attaches great importance to the construction of grass-root Party organization construction and constantly improves organizational cohesion. By actively organizing a series of education on the study of Party history, it never ceases enhancing the “four awareness” and strengthening the “four confidences” to cultivate the senses of identity and mission of Party members; by taking practical activities as the carrier, it leads Party members and comrades to investigate various “red resources” in Shanghai, search for “red genes” in Fudan and promote the deepening and implementation of relevant series learning and education. In major tasks like dealing with COVID-19, FISF Party members are always fearless to forge ahead and charge on the front line against the epidemic, practicing their original mission and not forgetting their responsibilities.

The FISF General Party Branch strives to construct a new pattern of Party building with resource sharing, complementary advantages and novel forms. As one of the first member units to participate in "Binjiang Party Building · Financial Bund", it makes continuous efforts to further create a new platform for interconnection, interaction, co-construction and sharing among various social entities under the guidance of Party building; and to actively explore the development path of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics in the new era by combining with the think tank platform in the school to improve the capability of offering political consulting services and build a new paradigm of “Party building in buildings”. FISF takes an active role in undertaking social responsibilities by leading Party members and comrades to Yangdong Primary School in Baoshan District Shanghai to participate in activities caring about the education of migrant workers’ children, signing the co-construction pairing agreement, holding the donation ceremony and caring about migrant workers’ children.

Through construction in multiple aspects of ideology, organization, system and brand, the FISF General Party Branch strengthens the grass-root foundation and improves the quality of Party building. By conducting the required actions in place and ensuring the characteristics of the optional actions, it constantly works on enhancing the ideological and behavioral consciousness of keeping the original intention and undertaking the mission, improving the team building of the schools’ Party members, establishing a Party building brand with the characteristics of a financial school, promoting the guidance of Party building in assaulting fortified positions, turning high-quality Party building into a strong force to implement the school work, and contributing to the construction of the “First Fudan”.

The year of 2022 is a significant year when the 20th CPC National Congress was convened, and also a key node of the historic crossroads of the “two centenary goals”. Immersed in such a surge of forging ahead in the new era, the FISF General Party Branch will continue to lead the school to gather wisdom and strength in the trend of inspiration and resonance, to compose a new gorgeous chapter at the grand stage with tremendous opportunities!

The Five-year Efforts

Top teaching faculty manifesting the surging power of its financial research

Top professors are the innovation source and development foundation of the construction of a first-class school. Ever since the school was established, FISF has given full play to the advantages of the international top teaching team, devoted to professional research and determined to make innovations, singing the Chinese voice on the international academic stage and bearing the glory of the times.

For the construction of the teaching team, FISF has successfully recruited and organized a top international teaching team consisting of 55 members, including 24 full-time professors, 20 distinguished and practice professors and 11 visiting and chair professors. Among them, all the senior professors have acquired tenured titles in first-rate business schools in the world, and act as academic pacesetters in their respective fields of financial and economic disciplines, having a wide knowledge of both ancient and modern times and of both China and western countries. On the other hand, practice professors, visiting professors and part-time professors from various international organizations, government units and senior management of enterprise institutions are willing to set an example by personally taking part in the financial practices taught to students, helping them integrate knowledge and action and pursue excellence and perfection.

For academic research, the team of professors at FISF has always been aggressively making innovations and breakthroughs, maintaining a high level of academic achievements in both quantity and quality. So far there have been 96 papers by 30 professors in total successively accepted to be published in world famous academic journals, among which 70 papers of 26 professors were published in international level-A journals. During those five years, multiple professors have won important academic awards and project funds both at home and abroad many times. Professor Shang-Jin Wei and Shiyi Chen respectively won Sun Yefang Economic Science Award, the highest honor for economists in China. And this was the second time that Professor Shang-Jin Wei, a Chinese economist with the highest citation rate in the world, had won this honor. In the meantime, he also won the “2019 Contemporary Economic Award”. The two excellent papers by Professor Shang-Jin Wei and Professor Chang Ma respectively won “2020 Pushan Award for Academic Research” and “2020 Pushan Young Scholars Award”. Professor Jun Qian won the “Best Paper in New Structural Financial and Economics in 2019 China Financial Academic Annual Conference”, “Best Paper in 2021 China Financial Academic Annual Conference” and “XY Best Paper in 2021 China Financial International Annual Conference”. The group project of innovation research entitled “Research on the laws and governance mechanisms of China’s economic development” led by Professor Shiyi Chen gained funds from the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Besides, Professor Jun Qian, Shiyi Chen and Jarrad Harford were selected for the “2021 Elsevier Rank of Highly Cited Chinese Researchers”.

For think tank research, FISF has been sticking to the international and open vision and the cutting-edge concept of taking a global view, providing strong support for government decision-making and enhancing efficiency and enabling economic development. The seven think tank research centers focusing on subjects of macro-finance, green finance, financial technology, real estate finance, digital finance, green finance and development, insurance innovation and investment have gathered high-end financial talents from both domestic and overseas academia, industry, government units and international organizations, forming a high-end open think tank platform combining the government, industry and university. Moreover, within the past five years, they have formally released over 50 thinktank achievements with both policy and social influence, among which multiple reports were adopted by the Party and state committees and bureaus at all levels, constantly fulfilling the mission of serving the country through finance by condensing the profound insight of Chinese wisdom.

In 2018, Professor Shang-Jin Wei was invited to attend the national “Expert and Entrepreneur Symposium on Economic Situation”, giving advice on issues like the major challenges faced in the national economic situation, negative economic and trade impact brought by the United States, and making analysis on how to exercise well tax reduction and fee cutting.

In 2018, Professor Jun Qian was invited to attend the think tank construction symposium held at Fudan University, Shanghai, illustrating the brand-new critical mission for Shanghai Stock Exchange to launch the STAR market and pilot the registration system and make key reports on how to do a good job in the pilot work.

In 2020, faced with the sudden, unexpected and globally spread outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, Professor Shang-Jin Wei and 20 top scholars worldwide wrote to leaders of G20, advocating joint efforts in fighting against the epidemic and more resource coordination to help poor and vulnerable countries.

Meanwhile, with a focus on key and difficult issues in the overall planning of epidemic prevention and control as well as the economic and social development, FISF actively organized expert power to assist in political decision-making. The expert team led by Professor Jun Qian, Professor Shiyi Chen and Dr. Qingjuan Li brought about multiple think tank achievement reports on the comparative analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on economies in various states, how to further boost the influence of Shanghai International Financial Center in the post-epidemic times, how to fight against the epidemic through the digitalization of blockchain technology, specific action suggestions for the pilot registration system of the STAR Market, how to improve the competitiveness of Shanghai's financial information service industry, the internationalization of the RMB and the evolution of the international monetary system, the Expo promoting the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta and many other subjects, being adopted by relevant central and Shanghai local departments and winning high recognition from relevant leaders.

Over the last five years, a number of professors at FISF have acquired awards or expert titles in Shanghai. Professor Shang-Jin Wei was granted “Magnolia Silver Award” by Shanghai People’s Government in 2019; Professor Jun Qian and Professor Franklin Allen were honorably engaged by Shanghai High People's Court as the first batch of international financial legal experts; Professor Jun Qian was employed as the major administrative decision-making consulting expert in Shanghai in 2022; and Dr. Qingjuan Li managed to get her think tank report selected as 2021 “Shanghai Excellent Thinktank Reports”.

“Also, FISF professors have condensed their many years of academic achievements into books, publishing several masterpieces so as to pay a tribute to the great accomplishments of the financial reform carried out in the new China and offer advice on the reform and development of the Chinese economy. In addition, the school cooperated with the School of Economics, Fudan University and jointly published Fudan Financial Review, which has gathered the unique thinking and insights of many top financial experts both at home and abroad and become one of the most influential financial think tank journals in China.

Moreover, in order to fully serve national strategies such as the “Belt and Road” Initiative, west China’s development in the new era, Chengdu-Chongqing twin-city economic circle and the construction of the national western financial center, Fudan University and Chengdu People’s Government worked together to jointly establish the Fudan Western International Financial Research Institute. Relying on FISF as well as its advantage of a world-leading teaching team, the institute mainly conducts research on financial theories and applications, financial education and talent cultivation, financial think tank and decision-making consultation, while also putting forth efforts to set up a scientific research system consisting of the western financial and economic big data and risk control center, the fintech lab, and the scientific innovative financial center, building a highland of financial research and talent cultivation in western China.

Five Years of Brilliance

Young pioneers shouldering the ambition of serving the country with finance

FISF has always upheld the school motto of “Excellence, Responsibility and Innovation”. In the past five years, it has made fruitful achievements like degree programs and non-degree programs as well as offline courses and online courses, successfully nurturing a number of financial talents with both theoretical and practical capabilities for China and the world.

The Elite Master of Finance Program (EMF), as the first-degree program of FISF, has enrolled new students for four years, and through five years’ development has become a “golden name card” of the professional master programs of Fudan University, gaining much attention globally. Students from Mainland China were all graduates from top domestic schools. The students have studied hard and got excellent grades, winning national scholarships. With enthusiasm for the financial business, many of them have been actively pursuing diversified growth and constantly making attempts, and thus managed to win many awards in various competitions like National University Valuation Modeling Competition, Challenge Cup, Chinese Mathematics Competitions and National English Competition for College Students; At the same time, the past five years have witnessed overseas students from 14 countries and students from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan being admitted into the program, who obtained their bachelor’s degrees in various famous universities such as the University of Pennsylvania in the US, McGill University in Canada, Oxford University and London School of Economics and Political Science in Britain and the University of Mannheim in Germany. In September 2022 the number of students on campus is estimated to be 270. In 2022, FISF, together with the School of Engineering, Columbia University, pushed forward double-degree cooperation comprehensively and carried out the double-degree joint cultivation plan of finance plus science, initiating the interdisciplinary cultivation system involving both applied economics and engineering science and further offering top comprehensive educational resources for students.

The Part-time Finance Master of Business Administration Program (FMBA PT+) was launched in 2018 on the basis of 3R concepts (Rigor, Relevance and Responsibility). It offers the L.I.T.E. series course (Leadership，Innovation, Team Spirit，Ethics), cultivating financial talents with both global vision and financial depth for the development of the financial industry in China and the whole world. So far there have been four years of students and it has accumulated a good reputation widespread in the financial industry. The students were aged  32 years old on average, and 75% are from head mechanisms of “banks, securities, insurance, fund and trust” in the financial industry, 70% were already management personnel in their respective companies. In 2021, among the first batch of graduates of the program, over one-third achieved career transformation or promotion, getting a 50% increase in the average annual salary after graduation compared to the number before admission, and 6 started their own business. Graduates in the second year in 2022 presented outstanding results in various appraisal activities. 4 students were selected as one of the “Excellent Graduates in Shanghai” and 9 “Excellent Graduates at Fudan University”. The number of students on campus this year is estimated to be around 200.

The full-time Finance Master of Business Administration Program (FMBA FT+) started in 2020 based on the education philosophy of cultivating financial leaders with both global vision and Chinese practice, adopting its unique cultivating mode closely combining the value concepts and action learning to promote students’ career transformation and help them achieve a successful financial life. By now it has enrolled new students for two years, who came from Qinghua University, Peking University, Oxford University and other famous universities around the world with diversified industry backgrounds, including finance, law, Internet, technology and medical health. The program is highly internationalized, with over 20% of students from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreign countries like the US, Canada and France. And 41% students have the exchange and learning experience in overseas universities and over 21% of students have already acquired master’s degrees and above. The number of students on campus in September 2022 is estimated to be 80.

Ever since its launch in 2018, The Finance Executive Master of Business Administration program（FEMBA）has witnessed a rapid growth in enrollment, with the growth rate of applicants over 100% annually. Its development speed ranks the first among all the business schools in China, making an extraordinary teaching reputation in business schools and the field of financial innovation. In 2022, the first batch of students to graduate won many awards in various appraisal activities, including 2 students selected as “Excellent Graduates in Shanghai” and 4 as “Excellent Graduates at Fudan University”. Among all the new students to be enrolled in 2022, over 25% of students are from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreign countries, setting a record high. In 2022, the program followed its original intention of being the “power of the financial system in China” and comprehensively iterated its unique “three-track-in-one” curriculum system: adding diversified elective courses that are both frontier and practical to the systematic financial knowledge curriculum involving insurance technology, green finance, fiscal and tax strategy, supply chain finance and digital finance; offering practical courses of LIVE Learning for students to actually learn and explore the “point-breaking solution” to practical problems encountered by enterprises; launching the “JOT (Journey of Transformation)” courses to successively open the interdisciplinary courses and lecture resources of the dozens of leading schools at Fudan University so that senior management of enterprises can build the critical thinking ability and forward-looking leadership pattern with the multidimensional knowledge. As the only EMBA program in China that only enrolls applicants with a bachelor’s degree and above, the Financial EMBA Program closely follows FISF’s school-running mission of shaping top financial talents and serving national financial strategies and strives to forge ahead to truly empower business leaders able to lead the future of the industry and deeply understand the law of finance.

In 2022, the Executive Education Program (EE) went through constant adjustments and upgrades and launched several non-degree executive education courses: Course for New Financial Entrepreneurs enables senior management to construct a financial knowledge system efficiently within a year, have an insight as a practitioner of the financial market trend and improve the financial operation capability; New Art Financial Wealth Camp takes new art financial investment as the principal line and invites a number of academic experts and industry leaders with abundant practical experience in the artwork and blockchain fields to help students make art investment and truly “play in the market”; Course for New Medical Entrepreneurs works together with the two leading disciplines at Fudan University, medicine and finance, for win-win cooperation, building a senior resource platform to help innovative biomedical enterprises acquire empowerment for capital management, from small to big and from big to strong. Apart from these public courses, the program also offers customized courses to a total of nearly ten thousand enterprise students, and multiple financial institutions sure to keep a cooperative relationship of long-term continuing training consignment, including Shanghai Banking Association, China Investment Corporation, China Taiping Life Insurance, China Pacific Insurance, AIA Life Insurance, Datong Insurance, Manulife-Sinochem Life, Minsheng Wealth and CITIC-Prudential, etc. Over the five years since the establishment of FISF, the EE program has set foot on two dimensions of “financial elites” and “industrial future” to help students achieve a successful career in finance.

The Finance,Technology&Business Program (FTB) started in February 2022, gathering domestic and overseas teaching forces top in financial management to jointly build a specialized theoretical knowledge system on the basis of economics, finance and management and construct a specialized curriculum system integrating the three fields of Finance, Technology and Business. The program will also conduct independent R&D on  overseas modules by carrying out on-site visits, investigation and research studies globally and absorb the advanced experience of the development of overseas enterprises. By making in-depth comparisons and enabling an understanding of the law of sustainable development, students can probe into academic research, extract business intelligence and constantly exceed limitations, becoming leaders of the times that can navigate the future of Chinese economy and make a difference to the global business pattern.

FISF will soon launch a financial major (oriented to fintech) for full-time graduates, which is taught in full English for its specialized courses, laying emphasis on data analysis and the application of technology in finance. In order to better introduce the financial undergraduate program and help high school students know about financial discipline, the school holds a camp each year aiming at excellent high school students, leading them to get close to finance, know about the development of financial discipline and industry, understand their own advantages and interests, clarify the direction of further study in the university and make plans for future career development. In July 2021, the first summer camp was held successfully, attended by 60 high school students from Shanghai High School, High School Affiliated to Fudan University and No.2 High School of East China Normal University. Registration for the second fintech-selected camp to be held in August 2022 is on now.

At the same time, FISF is actively exploring pilot online education, successively launching the series courses of “Fudan Financial Public Course”, “Fudan Financial Selected Course”, “Fudan Financial Investment Course” and “Fudan Financial Public Welfare Course” since 2020. Converging almost a hundred top-level financial and economic experts including Yifu Lin, Shusong Ba, Daokui Li, Zhiwu Chen, Yiping Huang, Yudong Yao, Tao Wang, Shang-Jin Wei, Jun Qian and Shiyi Chen, the courses concentrate on financial and economic hot issues, analyze the rapid changes in the world and look out into China’s development. They are the bright lights that guide China’s finance to march far and firmly and enlighten unlimited ideological surge. The courses have attracted wide attention of society, thus not only have become a golden name card of online education of Fudan University, but also starting an inclusive path to promote elite education and help students accomplish a life of wisdom through lifelong learning, enabling finance to assist the industry and knowledge to empower the future.

FISF has innovatively created a pyramid of career development counseling systems that selects excellent career tutors from all walks of life in combination with the constantly changing talent needs at home and abroad. It establishes a mutually beneficial recruitment partnership with financial institutions covering the Asia Pacific region. Meanwhile, it offers one-on-one and multiple rounds of consulting services and experiential extended learning courses to help students deeply understand the operating laws of the financial industry, set up and achieve career goals and eventually enter the financial society with a solid foundation. In 2021, the employment rate was 100%, and the specific directions included: 48% of foreign investment banks / securities companies / financial consultants, 26% of public funds / private funds / venture capital / asset management, 14% of technology companies / Internet enterprises, and 12% of government units / consulting companies / banks; in 2022, the employment rate of all the students to enter the employment was 100%, and the specific directions included: 52% of foreign investment banks / securities companies / financial consultants, 28% of 26% of public funds / private funds / venture capital / asset management, 7% of technology companies / Internet enterprises, and 13% of government units / consulting companies / banks; the employment places of both years of graduates include domestic first-tier and new first-tier cities, Hong Kong China, the US, the UK, Singapore, Russia and etc.

Employing units of 2021 and 2022 EMF graduates (part)

From establishment till now, these five years have borne fruitful achievements. By 2022, the total number of alumni graduating from the three major degree programs of EMF, FMBA and FEMBA of FISF reached 400 students, who give out brilliance and contribute force on the financial stage in China and the world. Upholding the original aspiration of serving the alumni, converging the alumni and empowering the alumni, FISF has officially founded the Alumni Affairs Department and started the alumni affairs comprehensively. Under the joint efforts of the 9 graduating classes of both years, the Alumni Association will be officially founded in 2022 upon the anniversary celebration of FISF.

With the five years passing quickly, the school is in the bloom of its youth, aggressive to discard the old and establish the new, striving to forge ahead! On the brand-new journey following, no matter where and when, all the teachers, students and alumni of FISF are sure to remain true to the original aspiration as always, uphold the school motto and bloom with passion and ardor, helping to build the school into a world-leading financial school as soon as possible and constantly striving to promote the uprising of China’s financial industry and the renovation of the international financial times, composing a brilliant chapter in the world history of finance that belongs only to China!

The logo of the 5th anniversary of FISF launches

On June 23rd 2022, the logo of the 5th anniversary of FISF was officially launched. It adopts the number “5” as the main part, the gold color representing finance and brilliance and the blue color representing thoughts and sediment as the essential colors. The color combination of blue and gold is like the galaxy, meaning to embrace the whole world and be held open to everything. The round coin represents the financial quality of the school, and the leaves around it symbolize the great number of students all over. By combining the two, a forward-rolling wheel is presented, which, together with the wing, indicates that FISF is ready to fly high with an indomitable will!