Historical Evolution:The educational history of the Department of Accounting and Finance can be traced back to the 1940s, when the School of Law and Business Administration of the National Guangxi University offered a major in Accounting and Banking. The renowned Chinese accountant, Mr. Yang Shizhan, served as a professor in the Department of Accounting and Banking of the Guangxi University School of Law and Business Administration in the late 1940s. In 1993, the first cohort of undergraduate students majoring in Accounting was recruited. In 2003, the first cohort of undergraduate students majoring in Financial Management was enrolled, and master’s students specializing in Financial Management under the major of Enterprise Management were also recruited. In the same year, Financial Management was introduced under the Master of Business Administration (MBA) program. In 2007, master’s students majoring in Accounting were admitted, and in 2012, master’s students majoring in Financial Management were recruited. Since 2015, Master of Professional Accounting (MPAcc) students have been enrolled. In 2018, the school obtained the authorization to offer doctoral degree in the first-level discipline of Business Administration (including the research direction of Accounting and Corporate Finance). Since then, the school became the earliest and only unit in Guangxi to have the authorization to offer Bachelor’s, Master's, and Doctoral degrees in Accounting.
Faculty: As of September 2023, the Department of Accounting, and Finance has 35 full-time teachers, including 6 professors, 12 associate professors, 3 lecturers, 14 assistant professors, and 1 doctoral supervisor. The number of full-time faculty members with Doctoral Degree is 30, accounting for 85.7% of the total faculty. The department boasts 1 scientist recognized as "Highly Cited Scientists Worldwide " by Clarivate Analytics (2022), 1 National Advanced Accounting Worker, 1 National High-End Accounting talent (academic category) designated by the Ministry of Finance, and 5 Outstanding Accounting Talents of the Guangxi "Top 10, Hundred, and Thousand" talents program.
Programs: The Department of Accounting and Finance currently offers one undergraduate program in Accounting, including two research direction focus on Intelligent Accounting and Smart Financial Management, which has one class under each direction. Academic master's programs are available in Accounting and Finance. MPAcc programs offer specializations in Intelligent Accounting and Smart Financial Management. The doctoral program focuses on Accounting and Corporate Finance.
Academic Development: The Accounting program was approved as the first-tier undergraduate program in Guangxi in 2021 and was later approved as the first-tier undergraduate program nationally in 2022.
Program Objectives: Relying on the First-tier Discipline Group Construction jointly funded by Guangxi University and the provincial government, the department aims to cultivate composite and innovative accounting talents with noble moral cultivation and professional ethics, solid theoretical foundations in economics and management, proficient accounting and financial skills, rigorous logical thinking, and open strategic thinking. These talents will have strong communication and coordination abilities, professional
judgment, written and oral expression skills, data analysis and processing capabilities, and will be able to meet the accounting and financial needs of various employers. The department strives to become a high-quality accounting talent cultivation base with significant influence in the central and western regions, basing in Guangxi, serving the nation, radiating ASEAN, and facing the world, especially focusing on the "Guangxi-ASEAN Free Trade Area" and the "Belt and Road" initiatives.
Academic Research: In recent years, the department has hosted 10 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Social Science Foundation of China, published over 20 academic monographs and over 20 textbooks. It has published over 200 academic papers in renowned journals such as Management World, Journal of Management Sciences in China, Systems Engineering - Theory & Practice, Accounting Research, Chinese Management Sciences, China Soft Science, Audit Research, Economic Trends, Chinese Journal of Population, Resources and Environment, Omega, European Journal of Operational Research, Ecological Economics, Energy Economics, Computer & Operations Research, Annals of Operations Research, Accounting and Finance, etc. The department has also won over 20 Provincial-level and above teaching and research awards.