STUBS Introduction
Founded in 1981 with the approval of the National State Council, STU (home page: http://www.stu.edu.cn/ or http://english.stu.edu.cn/index.php) is a comprehensive university under the jurisdiction of the Guangdong provincial government, and was co-developed by the MOE, Guangdong provincial government, and the Li Ka-Shing Foundation (LKSF). STU is located in the north-western area of Shantou, a seaside city in eastern Guangdong Province.
Beginning with its first enrolment of students in 1983, STU today hosts 9,167 undergraduate students, 3,452 postgraduate students, 246 doctoral students, and 83 overseas students.So far, it has produced 46,307 graduates from full-time bachelor’s degree programmes. By November 2020, there were 886 full-time faculty members, including 244 professors and 313 associate professors. Of these, 67.5% had doctoral degrees, 47% had overseas study or work experience, and 11.6% had foreign passports. Three faculty members were among Elsevier’s most cited researchers in China.
In March 2011, STU’s proposed programme to transform itself into a self-governing HEI was designated as the ‘Guangdong Pilot Project of Comprehensive Educational Reform’ by the Guangdong provincial government. In June 2012, the MOE, Guangdong Provincial Government, and the LKSF signed a tripartite agreement to co-develop STU and support its educational reform. Since 2015, STU has been listed in the Guangdong Funding Programme for Developing High-level Universities. On 4 November, 2018, STU was approved as the first Experiment Demonstration University of Higher Education Institutional Reform in Guangdong, in attempt to seek a replicable and applicable path of higher education institutional reform and innovation. The construction and development of STU received generous support from Mr. Li Ka-Shing, a distinguished entrepreneur. Up until 2025, the LKSF will earmark grants of over HK$ 10 billion to support STU. In 2019, STU’s east campus construction project was initiated, with a planned student body of 20,000 and a planned area of about 1,034,000 Square Meters.
STUBS (home page: http://biz.stu.edu.cn/ or http://biz.stu.edu.cn/en/index.aspx) was formally established in May 1996 from its predecessor, the Department of Economics and Management. STUBS has had three departments since 2018: Department of Management, Department of Accounting and Finance, and Department of Applied Economics.
Currently, STUBS has 60 faculty members and 18 staff members. It strives to increase faculty diversity in terms of both women (20 female faculty: 33%) and underrepresented minorities (11 faculty members from overseas: 18.3%). Ninety percent of its faculty have a Ph.D. degree.In the current academic year, STUBS has 1,243 undergraduate students, 85 master’s students and 286 MBA students, as well as 88 students for part-time executive trainings.
In 2008, STUBS joined the EFMD, and in 2012, its Business Administration Degree Programme was officially accredited by EPAS. In 2015, five undergraduate majors successfully obtained EPAS accreditation. In 2018, these five majors were re-accredited by the EPAS for three years. By request from the EFMD, STUBS has used the new logo, EFMD bachelor, since 1 November, 2020.
At present, STUBS is a comprehensive reform pilot school for ordinary colleges and universities in Guangdong Province. It has many training platforms appointed by the government, such as the Key Research Base for Humanities and Social Sciences, the Practical Base for College and University Students in Guangdong Province, the Innovative Experimental Centre for Talent Training in Economics and Management in Guangdong Province, and the Distinctive Major Construction Point, as approved by the MOE. The programmes of various majors have also received much national and provincial recognition, such as the First Class Undergraduate Major, the Most Prestigious Programme, two Distinctive Majors, and the Comprehensive Reform Pilot Major in Guangdong Province.
The two following applicant programmes for re-accreditation were established according to the MOE’s categories for undergraduate education. The Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) programme includes three majors: General Management (GM), Accounting (ACC), and Marketing (MKT). However, STUBS decided to discontinue the recruitment of new students for the Marketing major in 2020 due to the consideration of balance between the major development and student enrolment. The Bachelor of Economics (BEcon) programme has two majors: International Economics and Trade (IET) and Finance (FIN). Each programme has a director who reports to the dean and vice deans.STUBS aims to attract and recruit students who are among the top 10% performers in the national entrance examination from Guangdong Province and other areas in mainland China, and targets students who have strong interests in high-quality bachelor’s programmes.
STUBS has a generalist master’s programme, which has two academic disciplines: (1) General Management, which includes Business Administration, Accounting, and Technology Economics & Management, and (2) Applied Economics. STUBS’s vice dean for research is responsible for the master’s programme, while STU’s Graduate School monitors and adopts a supervisory role in the programme’s academic and degree affairs. STUBS recruits around 21–34 post-graduate students each year: up to the quota allocated by the Graduate School.
In addition, STUBS has an MBA Education Centre, which was established in 2009 and was validated by the MOE in 2015. The Centre is under the dean’s leadership and is supervised by STU’s Graduate School. The Centre targets the local market and recruits 78–88 MBA students a year: up to the quota allocated by the Graduate School. The Centre offers short-term training and in-house training programmes to local companies and executives.