Brief Introduction to the College of Economics and Management (CEM)

The College of Economics and Management (CEM) of Nanjing Agricultural University (NAU) is one of the educational birthplaces in agricultural economics and management in China. Its origin can be traced back to the Agricultural Economics Department of both the University of Nanking and the National Central University. The Department of Agricultural Economics of Nanjing Agricultural College was set up by merging these two departments in 1952. In March 1989, the College of Agricultural Economics and Trade was established with the approval of the Ministry of Agriculture. It was renamed as the College of Economics and Trade (CEM) in April 1994 and then the College of Economics and Management in September 2004. Therefore, the college enjoys a history of more than 90 years since the discipline of Agricultural Economics was set up for undergraduates in 1920, with the enrollment of Master degree students in the discipline more than 80 years ago in 1936. CEM has been greatly enlarged with the efforts of generations of staffs, with quality of teaching improved and scientific research progressed. It contains many disciplines of economics and management, as well as stratified systems for post-doctoral, doctor’s and master’s programs. As a result, it is well-known both at home and abroad for its talent training, scientific research and social services.

CEM has a post-doctoral research center, 2 first-level doctoral programs, 3 first-level Master programs, 4 professional master degree programs and 5 undergraduate programs. Among them, Agricultural Economics and Management is the national Key Discipline. Agricultural & Forestry Economics and Management is the first level key discipline of Jiangsu Province and Rural Development is the Jiangsu Provincial key discipline. Thus, the discipline of agricultural & forestry economics and management enjoys a high reputation in the academic circle.

There are 81 faculty members in CEM, among whom professors and associate professors stand at 29 and 22 respectively. After long time accumulation and development, CEM has a high quality teaching and research team. There is one leader of Agricultural & Forestry Economic and Management Discipline Appraisal Group of the Academic Degree Committee of the State Council, 5 government Special Subsidy winners, one distinguished professor under “Cheung Kong Scholars Award” of the Ministry of Education (MoE), 2 members of the Teaching Steering Committee of MoE, 3 winners of the “New Century Excellent Talents Supporting Plan” of the MoE, 2 winners of “National Top 100 Excellent Ph.D. Dissertation Award”, one Jiangsu Provincial Top 10 Distinguished Social Sciences Master, 2 winners of Jiangsu Provincial “Top 6 Talent Summit Program”, 11 members of the Jiangsu Provincial Talent Program “333 Project”, one “Zhongshan Distinguished Professor” of NAU and 7 winners of “Zhongshan Outstanding Young Scholars” of NAU.

Since 2000, CEM faculty has chaired and completed more than 200 research projects funded by both domestic and international sources. Among them, there are 8 projects in the Key Bidding Program of the National Social Science Foundation of China (SSFC), two in the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), one in the Key Program of the Ministry of Education, and 55 in the General Program and Young Program of NSFC and SSFC. More than 20 research achievements have been made at provincial & ministry-levels, for example, “Excellent Scientific Research Award for Universities (Humanistic & Social Sciences)”, “Excellent Award for Philosophy & Social Sciences Research of Jiangsu Province” and “China Rural Development Research Award”.

There are 925 undergraduate students, 1015 postgraduate students and more than 20 overseas students. Among the postgraduate students, there are 95 Ph.D. students, 179 students of academic Master programs and 741 of various professional master programs. CEM’s educational system is characterized with her distinguishing feature and has generated a large number of professional talents well appreciated by society with solid theoretical background, innovative and open mind set, and high practical capability. Three doctoral theses were awarded the National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of the Ministry of Education and another 2 awarded with nomination prize. Thus CEM enjoys a high reputation both at home and abroad for its high quality education.

CEM has very active international exchanges and cooperation, thus with a high profile of internationalization. A large group of distinguished domestic and overseas scholars work as guest professors or adjunct professors. More than 60 staff members have had the opportunity to go abroad as visiting scholars or degree pursuers. CEM has established good research cooperation with over 10 international organizations, including the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Economic Research Service of United States Department of Agriculture and the Ford Foundation. Fruitful exchange and collaborative relationships have also been established with world-renowned universities, such as University of California at Davis, Cornell University, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Gottingen, University of Giessen, University of Kyoto, Wageningen University, University of Sydney, Universidade De Sao Paulo and Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS Campus Saúde). Academic contacts and cooperation have also been developed with National Taiwan University and National Chung Hsing University.