About Us

The International Business School (IBS), founded in 2001, is one of the largest departments at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU). It offers a multitude of academic programs at the undergraduate, master’s (both academic and practice-oriented) and doctoral level, as well as overseas programs and international programs. IBS has six departments: International Economics, Finance, Accounting and Financial Management, Business Management, International Business, and Management Science and Engineering. It also is the home of multiple research centers, including the Center of G20 Studies, the Center of Management Science, the Center of Cross-Cultural Management, the Center of Transnational Sanctions and Export Control, the Center of Global Science and Technology Innovation Promotion, the Center of Ideological and Political Research for Economics and Management Courses, and the Research Center for the Internationalization of Companies from Emerging Economies (I-CEE Center).

At present, IBS has one Doctoral Degree program in Management Science and Engineering, one joint Doctoral Degree program in International Business and Regional Governance, and one joint Doctoral Degree program with Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.IBS is also home to many graduate programs. When it comes to pursuing the academic master’s degree, IBS offers programs in Management Science and Engineering, Applied Economics, Business Administration, and a joint program in Diplomacy (field of international economics). When it comes to the professional master’s degree, IBS offers the Master of International Business (MIB), Master of Finance (MF), Master of Professional Accounting (MPAcc), and Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs.

At the undergraduate level, IBS currently offers degree programs for students majoring in International Economics and Trade, Finance, Information Management and Information System (Big Data and Business Analytics), Accounting, Financial Management, Business Administration, International Business, E-Commerce, International Business (German and German Country Studies), Finance (Russian and Russian Country Studies), and International Economics and Trade (Sino-Foreign Cooperation). Students can also pursue a minor in International Economics and Trade or International Business. For students who are interested in studying abroad, IBS offers four major disciplines in Economics, Management, IT, and Communication. All degree programs are open to international students.

IBS provides students with an exceedingly multilinguistic environment: a large number of economics and management courses are offered in English, and students can choose to study a second language like Spanish, French, etc. as well. Currently, there are 826 Chinese undergraduate students, 479 international undergraduate students, 281 Economics and Management dual-degree undergraduate students, 521 full-time graduate students (including doctoral students), and nearly 400 students in the International Program of Economics and Management at the Ministry of Education (MOE)'s Training Base for Studying Abroad. IBS also cooperates with various BFSU language departments to offer undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue dual majors in languages and in business; such programs include German (Business), Russian (Finance), Spanish (International Business), Korean (International Business), and European Language Studies (European Business).

IBS has a strong faculty with diverse cultural backgrounds and areas of expertise, spanning Economics, Management, Science, Engineering, Literature, Philosophy, Law, various languages, etc., providing for a robust atmosphere of interdisciplinary learning. They have strong academic backgrounds in modern economics and management, as well as a broad international perspective and rich practical experience. Of the 141 full-time faculty members, 80 are simultaneously engaged in both teaching and research. More than 90% of the faculty hold doctoral degrees or are doctoral candidates, and more than 70% hold academic degrees from international educational institutions or have had more than six months of overseas study experience. The current faculty comprises 18 professors and 20 associate professors. Five IBS professors have been supported by the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) New Century Excellent Talents Program; two professors have been selected as members of the New Century National Hundred, Thousand, and Ten Thousand Talent Project; and two professors have been selected as the members of the Ministry of Finance's (MOF) 2021 Financial Talent Pool.

As an active promoter of the globalization of business education in China, IBS could not have enjoyed such rapid advancement without the incredible growth of China's economy during the past thirty years. With the combined effort of faculty and staff, students and alumni, we seek to build a multilingual, cross-cultural and multi-regional international business school that is not only able to bring about innovations to contemporary economics and management theory and practice, but is also to serve the economic development of China and the world. We wish to play a part in catalyzing the transformation of China from a “huge” economy to a “great” economy, from a nation that commands the world’s attention to a nation that commands the world’s respect.

IBS is dedicated to building a platform that allows future business leaders from around the world to explore different societies and expand their spectrum of knowledge, develop their potential for independent thinking and self-development, and disseminate universally held human values. Our goal is to build a multi-layered, cross-cultural training model that will enable students to become interdisciplinary multilingual international business professionals with a global vision and a deep understanding of Chinese culture, who can assume great responsibility in furthering the process of China's economic globalization. We want to equip our students with the ability to effectively navigate complex and competitive business environments, by honing their communication, analytical, experiential and decision-making skills. IBS aims to build a training base for Chinese managerial talent in multinational companies, and for international managerial talent in Chinese companies.

Thanks to the joint support of the MOE, the education authorities of the Beijing Municipal Government, and the university, IBS has achieved great success in teaching, research, and international cooperation. In 2002, IBS’s discipline cluster of economics and management was determined by BFSU as a key discipline supported by the National Project 211. In 2007, IBS was approved as a pilot zone for training transnational economic and managerial talent, in the Quality Teaching Project for higher education institutions that is jointly administered by the MOE and the MOF. In 2009, IBS’s teaching model reform of economics and management courses attained First Prize in Teaching Achievements of Beijing. In 2012, the Experimental Teaching Center for Economics and Management Disciplines was assessed to be a National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center. In 2019, IBS collaborated with the ESCP Business School in France to establish the first European Business Confucius Institute in the world. In 2021, two IBS majors (International Economics and Trade, Accounting) were approved as national level first-class undergraduate majors, while three other majors (Finance, Information Management and Information System, Business Administration) were approved as municipal level first-class undergraduate majors in Beijing.

IBS encourages faculty members to continuously innovate and reform their teaching content and methods, by learning from leading business schools around the world. Each year, IBS sees a considerable number of its faculty publish in well-renowned academic journals both domestic and abroad; faculty members also often preside over and participate in many publicly funded research projects at the national, provincial, and ministerial level, as well as corporate-entrusted research projects. IBS attaches great importance to social service and encourages faculty members to actively engage in industry practices as well, in the role of academic instructors, strategic consultants, and independent directors.

IBS implements the "One Body, Two Wings" globalization strategy. While the core of our globalization strategy is intensive collaboration with universities in Europe and the United States, we also vigorously expand our relationship with universities in emerging market-oriented countries and countries in which China has made significant investment; this enables us to participate in China's economic globalization process in an incredibly active manner. IBS encourages undergraduate and graduate students under planned enrollment to study abroad, and provides various international exchange opportunities for all students. These programs allow for the ready sharing of different countries’ economic and business development experiences: not only will we be able to learn from other country’s experiences, but we will also be able to disseminate China's experiences to the world.

IBS maintains excellent collaborative relationships with the government, enterprises, financial institutions, and multinational companies. We provide senior-management level training courses for a variety of governmental agencies and corporations; we also work with corporations to establish student internship training bases, collaborative training programs, and collaborative research programs. These endeavors allow IBS to identify and author case studies featuring paradigmatic Chinese companies, which help to ensure that our students' employment prospects are a national leader within our industry.

No matter whether it comes to teaching, research, or social services, IBS has always adhered to the principle of promoting China's economy, participating in economics and management theory innovation, and cultivating talent – all from a global perspective. We aim to build an international business school with the distinctive characteristics of BFSU, and we hope to play an unique role in China's economic development.

 International Business School of Beijing Foreign Studies University

May 2022