Since the fall semester of 2014, Tsinghua SEM MoF program has opened four series financial practice class including “Financial Practice Class Module 1: An Overview of Chinese institutional buyer investment", “Financial Practice Class Module 2: Chinese financial seller institutions and financial frontier", “Financial Practice Class Module 3: Internet finance" and “Financial Practice Class Module 4:- Fund investment and industry analysis in China", which invited dozens of well-known alumni of the industry, as industrial tutors into classroom, introducing cutting-edge knowledge and practical experience in financial industry to students, let students grasp the theoretical knowledge of industry and the most intuitive insight and understanding into the industrial practice.

In order to popularize the knowledge of financial institutions to students as a cultivation of reserve talents for the financial industry, the vice president of Tsinghua University, Professor Yang Bin advised the Tsinghua University SEM MOF program to open “Financial Practice Class Module 1: An Overview of Chinese institutional buyer investment", at the beginning of the fall semester of 2014.

Professor Qian Yingyi, Dean of Tsinghua University SEM, pointed out at the “seminar of grand-new education and teaching mode” on April 25th last year that “Tsinghua faculty and Tsinghua alumni” is the core strengths of Financial Practice Class. Outstanding alumni from the industry could provide students with a wealth of financial instances so that everyone in the school could begin to get in touch with the financial business.

The essence of finance is related to practice. The theories, ideas and methods of finance all come from practice. As an excellent financial talent, the practical experience is indispensable. In the practical class, students can get to know the most vivid cases and the forefront of ideas, and the actual practice is that our original intention to set up a series of practical class." Professor Xu Xin, Vice Dean of the school of economics and management of Tsinghua University, affirmed the practical value of the course in the opening ceremony of the Financial practice class.

At the same time, Professor Gao Jian, Secretary of the Party committee of the school of economics and management of Tsinghua University, also emphasized the mode of combining teaching with practice, which is an important part of the future educational reform. Professor Gao Jian pointed out that it is not difficult to acquire knowledge in the current era, but it is very difficult to form a system cognition in a certain field, and the process of summing up from practice becomes more and more difficult. The opening of financial practice class conforms to this demand and combines the practice and teaching of the front line.

Analysis of Financial practice class were launched in four areas of the Buyer investment industry, Financial seller institutions, Internet investment and Fund investment and analysis. The industrial tutors explain the most cutting-edge financial ideas to the students through simple terms, let the classroom more closely related to the cutting-edge knowledge and practice.

Professor Gao Jian, Secretary of the Party committee of SEM, delivered a welcome speech in the opening ceremony of the Financial Practice Class and stressed the teaching mode of the combination of theory and practice.

Financial Practice Class Module 1 and Financial Practice Class Module 2 explain respectively the situation of Chinese financial buyer institutions and seller institutions. Each lesson is carefully prepared by the industry personnel from the regulatory authorities or major financial institutions, who also communicate with the teachers of the classes about the course content so that every class will have its own characteristics and advantages.

The main planner of practice class module 1, the Capital Partner of “New Horizon” Zhang Shun (Class 88 of EE) said that the buyer institution and investment and practice class has been set up for more than three years. There are more than 10 alumni in Beijing and Shenzhen to give lectures about the situation and development and cases of the industry and introduce their own life experience. This has help students to quickly understand the industry and make the appropriate choice of occupation and have a reflection of life.

Mentor of Practice Class Module 2, the founder of Shuimu investment group, Fang Fang (Economics, Class 1984) has expressed his recognition and applause of the education and teaching mode of financial practice class series. He believes that through the discussion between SEM faculty and industrial tutors as well as the preparation of the responsible teachers, this course can make the industrial tutors to summarize their cases as theoretical knowledge, which will on the other hand bring deeper reflection and further insights for the students.

The course of financial practice class module 3 focuses on the popular Internet financial topics, peer-to-peer lending co-founder Zhang Shishi (2003) as the course instructor, he believes that over the past few years, the Internet financial Chinese also had setbacks, dragons and fishes jumbled together, but the future is bright, the Internet financial industry is full of youthful spirit Chinese the financial market in the future".

Professor Xu Xin, Vice Dean of SEM, affirmed the practical value of the course in the opening ceremony of the Financial Practice Class.

PICC assets public fund division general manager Tian Kun commented Financial Practice Class Module 4: we can hardly hear any theory in the course, but can harvest many dry cargo in every class. There are real, in-depth industrial analysis. The essence of the practice class is to bring the content that needs to be contacted in the first half of the year into the classroom, which will greatly increase the competitiveness of the students in the future job search process.

Students have said that in the Financial Practice Class, they harvest not only professional knowledge, vivid cases, but also the language of wisdom from the industrial tutors.

Professor Liu Chun, the Faculty Director of MoF program, once described in the opening ceremony, that the Financial Practice Class has different characteristics. This course is to open to all master students in every department and school of Tsinghua University. Students from different professional background can also choose this course. Professor Liu Chun stressed that the series course of Financial Practice Class will invite industrial tutors to further explore the professional knowledge of the financial sector, to bring the practice into the classroom, and provide for students with more practical help in the future occupation.

Panorama of the Financial Practice lass

In Financial Practice Class, there are students from different majors and grades. All seats are occupied, and the classroom will be full early as there are so many students choose this elective course and auditors.

Zhang Zhengye, MoF student of 2016, who has chosen all four series of Financial Practice Class, thought that for the students of MoF program, practical course with depth and systematic curriculum, is very necessary, for it not only can let us have a deeper understanding of the practical significance of academic knowledge, but also can help us to complete a smooth docking from the school to career."

MiM-CEMS student of 2016, Yang Zhenji, thought that he was relatively lacking in financial knowledge. The course of Financial Practice Class is a good way to popularize financial practice knowledge, and a practical for method research of grade two line. In his view, the creation of such courses at Tsinghua SEM is an innovation and hopes that more of these types of courses will be opened in the future.

Xiao Diwen is the graduate student of 2016 in the Department of chemical engineering. He felt that every teacher's lectures are very detailed, and very down to earth, “practice class enables students to quickly understand the financial knowledge in different directions, and students can compare to their own situation to choose their own direction in the industry; the class is also very unique: forms of group research and presentation make students from different background to cooperate and learn from each other.".

For example, the teacher of Financial Practice Class Module 2, Shen Tao, a professor of Finance Department, said: “lecturers of practice class have rich practical experience and keen insight in each financial sector. We invite these lecturers to campus, who can have face-to-face teaching and dialogue with students who can fully understand the forefront of the latest development of the financial sector and financial institutions issue. This is a very rare opportunity, especially in the rapid development of the financial industry and under the background of transformation. Through this course, students of economics and management majors can combine the book knowledge and theory with the actual situation in China, and make it clear their future development direction and mission. At the same time students of science and engineering majors can understand the operation of financial institutions and make better use of finance to promote the development of the real economy."

The establishment of Financial Practice Class is a step that Tsinghua SEM takes to adapt to education reform and make innovations, which puts financial knowledge and business practice closely together, and strives to cultivate high-quality talents with excellent financial theoretical knowledge, practical skills, understanding into both the China conditions and a global vision for the development of the financial market in China.

Writor: Wan Ningning

Translator: Xia Bingcong

Editor: Master's Programs Office