Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE), directly under the leadership of the Ministry of Education and co-sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance and the Beijing Municipal Government, is a key national university supported by the “Double First-Class initiative and the Project 211, and one of the first batch of pilot universities with Project 985 Innovation Platform. Founded in 1949, CUFE is the first university featuring finance and economics in China established by the central government shortly after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. It was first named as Central School of Taxation and then it went through several stages of development from Central Institute of Finance, Central Institute of Finance and Economics, to Central Institute of Finance and Banking. And in 1996, it was officially renamed as Central University of Finance and Economics.

In the new century, CUFE has laid great emphasis on cultivating innovative minds and their practical ability, has explored new approaches to talent training and set up pilot projects for talent cultivation. Those efforts have achieved fruitful results: CUFE became one of the first batch of universities designated by the Ministry of Education as “National University Cultural Quality Education Base” and “National University Students Experimental Project for Innovative Talents” in 2006 and 2007 respectively; it became one of the pilot universities for national "Innovation-oriented Financial Professional Training Model Reform” and one of the pilot universities for "Comprehensive Reform of Professional Degrees of Graduate Education” by the Ministry of Education in 2010; it ranked first in the “ Report on Competitiveness Ranking of China’s Financial and Economic Universities from 2014 to 2015” released by Research Center for China Science Evaluation.

At present, responding to the needs of higher education development at home and abroad and the new trend of China’s economic and social development, combining its own advantages, and through scientific analysis, CUFE defines its strategic development goal as building CUFE as a unique, multidisciplinary, international and high-level research university.