Founded in 2007, the Department of International Business boasts a faculty of 35 teachers, including 4 professors, 3 associate professors, 12 returned overseas scholars, and 2 international teachers, all of whom hold master’s or doctor’s degrees. Also working in the department are 30 part-time visiting professors and academic advisers. Recruiting high school graduates nationally, it has an enrolment of up to 1400 full-time students currently. It has graduated more than 1200 students with an employment rate of 100%.

  The department presently provides 8 diploma programs: Business English (International Business, International Trade, Translation), Tourism English (English for Tourism, Hotel Management), Electronic Commerce, and International Trade Practice (Convention and Exhibition). The department adopts a market-oriented curriculum featuring patterns of “broad foundation, flexible modules” and “inclusive program, breakdown specialties”. Through cooperation with companies and business associations, the department aims to integrate learning, internships with employment. Furthermore, it holds various campus cultural activities with “International Business and Tourism Festival” as the brand to create a real language and business learning environment, enriching students’ cultural and professional knowledge, and enhancing their cultural, artistic accomplishments and professional skills.

  The department has achieved a remarkable success as to curriculum development and training facilities: 1 key program sponsored by the central government, 1 Elite Course at national level and province level respectively, 1 Elite Course at Ministry of Education level (College English Teaching Supervision Committee), 3 Elite Courses at the college level, and a number of research projects at province/college/department level. The department enjoys nationally advanced Multimedia Digital Language Labs, Training Rooms of International Trade, Business Negotiation, E-Commerce, Simulated Tour Guide Training Room, Hotel Management Training Room, Translation Workshops, Business Tourism Centers, as well as the first-class Multi-function Learning Centers for students to carry out extra-curriculum activities and autonomous learning. In addition, 48 off-campus practice bases have been established together with business groups, enterprises and companies, offering a platform to train application-oriented graduates who master the theoretical knowledge of international business, the international trade practice, tourism, hotel service and management, well-versed in English, adept in information technology, and competitive and cooperative in business and tourism industry.

  International Cooperation and Exchange

  To provide students with better access to further studies, the department offers counseling classes (Business English) for self-taught undergraduate study in cooperation with the Open Colleges of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and South China Normal University. Students who have passed all the course exams will obtain undergraduate diploma; those outstanding ones, after passing the provincial exam of the second foreign language can apply for a bachelor’s degree. At present, students of self-taught exam counseling classes 2007, 2008 and 2009 have graduated with an undergraduate diploma and some, the bachelor’s degree. And more programs will be offered in other related fields of undergraduate self-taught exam from now on.

  Employment Prospects

  The department has signed agreements on students’ internship and employment with dozens of trade associations and enterprise groups in the Pearl River Delta region. The employment rate from 2007 to 2010 reached 100% and about 85% of the posts are closely related to the students’ specialties. Graduates mainly work in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan and other cities in the Pearl River Delta as staff of international trade and finance companies, assistants and secretaries of international business companies, translators of foreign enterprises, tour guides of travel agencies, and hotel (four-star, five-star) managers and so on.

  Development Plan for the Next Three Years

  In accordance with the college’s development project “the Twelfth Five-year Plan”, the department will enlarge enrollment and increase investment to create first-class school facilities, train its faculty, and establish a personnel training pattern with regional features. Thus, the department is striving for a provincial model program characterized by distinctive feature, providing international business-oriented talents for the economic development of Guangdong province.