HIT was one of the first universities in China to establish economics and management programmes. In the 1940s, it set up programmes in the disciplines of railway management, engineering economics and Asian economics. In the 1950s, with help from the USSR, it began to serve as a model in the teaching of engineering economics for Chinese engineering universities. Two major programmes were established in 1954: Manufacturing Enterprise Economy, Organisation and Planning (MEEOP) and Power Enterprise Economy, Organisation and Planning (PEEOP). The following year saw the establishment of the Department of Engineering Economics (DEE), amongst the first engineering universities in China. The DEE was responsible not only for educating undergraduate and graduate students, but also for training large numbers of teachers and managers in the areas of engineering economics and industrial business administration, thereby helping HIT to become the cradle of engineering economics education and contributing greatly to the popularisation and development of management education in China. In 1978, the DEE changed its name to the Department of Management Science and Engineering (DMSE) and established an Industrial Management Engineering programme that admitted both undergraduates and graduate students.
With the approval of the Ministry of Education, HIT established the School of Management (SoM) in August 1984, one of the first four management schools in China. Two years later, the SoM acquired the authority to bestow PhD degrees in Management Engineering (Management Science and Engineering since 1998), followed, in 2005, by the authority to bestow PhD degrees in Business Administration and Public Administration. Management Science and Engineering has been a national key discipline since 2001. In 1991, 2001 and 2002, the SoM became one of the first Chinese universities to offer MBA, MPA and executive MBA (EMBA) programmes, respectively. Currently, the SoM has 2,970 students enrolled, 70% of them graduate students.
In its 60 years of development, while consolidating its competitive advantages, the SoM has blazed ahead in management research and practice by taking on the complex and ever-changing business environment of China and the world at large, always discovering and exploring new research topics and directions. The SoM has made significant contributions to the innovation of China’s management theories and practices, leading the nation in many research areas and also having made its mark in the international management academic community. The aims of the School’s MBA and EMBA programmes are to serve Chinese business, society and the region by cultivating management talent.
The SoM’s pre-history and history can be divided into the five following stages.
(1) Introduction of management education for the new China (1952-1966)
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, management science education, like many other arenas, copied the USSR model, and the SoM played a leading role in this endeavour.
(2) Restoration and transformation (1978-1990)
Following the upheaval of the Cultural Revolution, management education in China was restored and began to follow a Western rather than USSR model. In line with this new direction, the SoM was established in 1984.
(3) Growth (1991-2000)
The SoM’s MBA programme was amongst the first professional Master degree programmes in China. Since 1992, China has gradually turned away from a planned economy and embraced a market economy, and the country’s management education and research have begun to take on a global flavour. In this period of growth, the SoM began its transformation from an education- to research-oriented school.
(4) Rapid development (2001-present)
Management education in China has developed rapidly in the first decade of the 21stcentury, and the pace of globalisation has accelerated. In 2002, the SoM was amongst the first group of universities in China chosen to launch an EMBA programme. Education and research are increasingly globalised in nature, and, in 2001, Management Science and Engineering at the SoM was granted the status of a first-class key discipline.
(5) Quality improvement (next 10 years)
By obtaining such international business school accreditation as Association of MBA (AMBA) accreditation, the SoM will continue to strive towards training management talent that can push the society forward in line with international standards. The School also aims to extend the frontiers of international management research and create knowledge that will contribute to the world at large. We will continue our efforts to build a nationally and internationally renowned school of management and to reach first-class status in certain academic fields.
