The International Business School (IBS), founded in 2001, is one of the largest schools at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU). IBS actively participates in China’s economic globalization and is committed to building a global business school that bridges Chinese and international business civilizations through the integration of global business practices and technological advancement. By embracing cultural diversity and fostering continuous innovation, IBS aims to cultivate future business elites with a global vision, a strong sense of social responsibility, and outstanding global competence.

IBS offers a variety of academic programs at undergraduate, master’s (both academic and practice-oriented) and doctoral levels, as well as overseas and international programs. IBS has six departments: International Economics, Finance, Accounting and Financial Management, Business Management, International Business, and Management Science and Engineering. It is also home to 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. 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. The school offers ten undergraduate programs, including two cross-university joint programs in top-tier A+ disciplines: English (in collaboration with the Information Management and Information Systems program at Beijing Institute of Technology) and English (in collaboration with the Finance program at Central University of Finance and Economics). Additionally, there are six nationally recognized first-class undergraduate program construction sites: International Economics and Trade, Accounting, Finance (Digital Finance), Information Management and Information Systems (Business Intelligence), Business Administration, and E-commerce (Digital Operation and Innovation). The school also offers programs in Big Data Management and Application, and International Business.

All undergraduate and graduate programs are open to outstanding international students worldwide, reflecting the school’s commitment to global engagement and talent development.

IBS provides students with a comprehensive 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. 

The school boasts a strong and diverse faculty team. With over 70 full-time faculty members from China and abroad, all of whom graduated from the world’s top universities, the team represents a wide range of cultural backgrounds and academic disciplines including economics, management, science, engineering, literature, philosophy, law, and foreign languages, with significant interdisciplinary integration. Our faculty members possess solid theoretical foundations in modern economics and management, coupled with broad international perspectives and rich practical experience. More than 96 percent of the faculty hold doctoral degrees or are doctoral candidates, and more than 91 percent hold academic degrees from international educational institutions or have had more than six months of overseas study experience. Three IBS professors have been supported by the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) New Century Excellent Talents Program; one professor has been selected as a member of the New Century National Hundred, Thousand, and Ten Thousand Talent Project; and three professors have been selected as members of the Ministry of Finance’s (MOF) 2021 Financial Talent Pool. Two professors have received the Beijing Municipal Education Commission’s Young Talent Award. The school’s teaching teams have received prestigious awards, including first and second prizes for Beijing Educational and Teaching Achievements (Higher Education), and the Finance team was awarded the first prize for Outstanding Teaching Teams in Beijing. Additionally, multiple professors have been honored with titles such as Beijing University Employment and Entrepreneurship Gold Course, Beijing Quality Undergraduate Courses, Beijing Model Courses for Ideological and Political Education, and have received awards for high-quality undergraduate teaching plans and courseware in Beijing.

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 efforts 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 also to serve the economic development of China and the world. We hope to play our 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 common 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 expect 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 designated by BFSU as a key discipline supported by the National Project 211. In 2007, IBS was approved as a pilot base for training transnational economic and managerial talents in the Quality Teaching Project for higher education institutions, 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 2023, the school officially received accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), which is internationally recognized as the most prestigious and rigorous accreditation for business schools worldwide. This important milestone signifies that the school’s business education has met the highest global standards, placing it among the top 6 percent of business schools internationally. Building on this achievement, in February 2025, IBS further demonstrated its commitment to academic excellence and global recognition by successfully obtaining accreditation from the Business Graduates Association (BGA). It is worth noting that Beijing Foreign Studies University is the first foreign language university on the Chinese mainland to be granted AACSB accreditation, underscoring its pioneering role and leadership in the field of business education.

IBS encourages its 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 renowned academic journals both domestically and internationally; each year, the faculty members also preside over and participate in many publicly funded research projects at the national, provincial, and ministerial levels, as well as in corporate-entrusted research projects. IBS attaches great importance to social service and encourages its 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 countries’ experiences, but we will also be able to disseminate China’s experience 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 the industry.

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 a unique role in China’s economic development.

International Business School of Beijing Foreign Studies University

June 2025