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On September 14th, the donation ceremony of the first titled chair professor fund, the Huifu Chair Professor Fund, was held on the Xuhui Campus of Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). Professor Guangshao Tu, Adjunct Professor at SJTU and Executive Director of SAIF; Ansheng Zhang, Member of the Standing Committee of CPC Committee and Vice President of SJTU; and Dr. Ye Zhou, Chairman and CEO of Huifu Co., Ltd. and one of the first graduates of SAIF GES Programs, all attended the ceremony and delivered speeches. Jie Pan, Associate Dean of SAIF, presided over the ceremony. Professors Chun Chang and Hong Yan, and many representatives from the SJTU Education Development Foundation, the Huifu Co., Ltd., and SAIF alumni were present at the event. After the ceremony, the guests also witnessed the setup of a golden plaque marked with the Huifu logo on the donation wall of SAIF. Afterwards, the guests were invited to the dean's banquet, which was hosted by Professor Hong Yan. During the banquet, Professor Chun Chang welcomed all alumni representatives back to their alma mater, and thanked SAIF for the award and recognition.

On September 3rd, the launching ceremony of the "Corporate Value Research" cooperation between the Corporate Finance Research Center of the China Academy of Financial Research (CAFR) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and the Beijing Qirong Zhishang Technology Co., Ltd. was held at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF), SJTU. Professors Chun Chang, Hong Yan, and Zhan Jiang were in attendance. Hui Xie, Executive Dean of the Hong Kong China Capital Research Institute and Chairman of Beijing Qirong Zhishang Technology Co., Ltd.; and Shuyan Li, General Manager of Shanghai Operations at Beijing Qirong Zhishang Technology Co., Ltd. also attended the event. At present, the weight of direct financing is only around 15% among Chinese businesses, while the figure exceeds 80% in the US and other developed economies. In response to this phenomenon, the Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China recently issued Several Opinions on Strengthening Financial Services to Private Enterprises, which mentioned “actively supporting private enterprises to expand direct financing”. Local governments must also consider support to the direct financing of enterprises and financing through capital markets as priorities. Although the development of the registration system and capital market reforms have created more opportunities for direct financing, the growth of direct financing for enterprises still encounters many difficulties. In this context, the CAFR Corporate Finance Research Center and Beijing Qirongzhishang Technology Co., Ltd. jointly conducted research on corporate value, aiming to establish a corporate valuation system with greater logic, rationality, effectiveness, and accuracy. At the launching ceremony, Hui Xie was appointed as Part-time Research Fellow at CAFR Corporate Finance Research Center and Professor Chang presented him with the Letter of Appointment. Through this cooperation, the two parties will work closely to translate research findings into financial sector advantages for China’s future.

On July 23rd, 2020, the Memorandum Signing Ceremony of Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) and Shanghai Zijiang Foundation was held at the SAIF Xuhui Campus. Jia Fang, Head of Development and External Relations at SAIF, presided over the ceremony. Professor Chun Chang, Professor of Finance and Executive Dean of SAIF, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU); Han Liu, Chairman of Shanghai Zijiang Foundation; Lin Chen, Secretary General of Shanghai Zijiang Foundation; Kai Zhang, Assistant to Secretary General of Shanghai Zijiang Foundation; and other leaders and guests attended the event. In December 2018, Shanghai Zijiang Foundation signed a donation agreement with SAIF to set up the Special Fund for Socially Responsible Investment Discipline Development. In 2020, Zijiang proposed to change the purpose of its contributions and instead launch the Zijiang Special Fund for Discipline Development. It would further facilitate the training of financial professionals and academic research in the financial domain based upon the concept of public welfare, to better serve the national strategic goal of the construction of Shanghai into an international financial center. The Fund will extensively support the needs of SAIF’s overall discipline development framework, strive to achieve a flexible and diversified discipline development architecture, and inject new momentum into SAIF’s sustainable development. Witnessed by the guests, Executive Dean Chun Chang and Chairman Han Liu signed the donation memorandum on behalf of each party. This contribution reflects Zijiang's expectations for the cultivation of world-class financial professionals and its social responsibility to foster charity. It is also a recognition and acknowledgement of SAIF’s education philosophy. With the encouragement and aid of the Zijiang Foundation and other community leaders, SAIF will continue to make ongoing progress towards the goal of building a world-class financial school and cultivating more outstanding financial professionals for the both the state and society.

A joint research team composed of Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the Capital Market Research Institute of Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) recently released the "Global Capital Market Competitiveness Report (2020)”. It shows that the competitiveness of China's capital markets have been improved significantly, and now rank 5th in the world. As a key component of the modern financial system, capital markets play a significant role in the competition of great world powers. In order to objectively reflect the evolution of China’s capital markets and to accurately benchmark best practices in the world’s major capital markets, the research team focused on major elements of core competency. It developed an evaluation system to assess the competitiveness of worldwide capital markets based upon four dimensions: institutional environment, market size, functionality, and quality. The team studied the world’s Top 20 markets in terms of both real economy and capital market size, and then calculated their capital market competitiveness indices.

On June 15th, 2020, the Master of Finance (MF) Program at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) was ranked No. 1 in Asia for the third consecutive time. Since its inaugural publication in 2011, the FT ranking has been considered one of the most authoritative benchmarks in the world. It rates business schools and their MF programs on 17 criteria in two key domains. The career progression domain, involving 7 metrics and weighing in at 58% of the total, is derived from a survey among alumni after three years of graduation. The other domain focuses on the diversity of business schools and their MF programs, which covers 10 metrics collected from survey questionnaires, weighing in at 42% of the total. SAIF distinguishes itself in the following rankings this year: "Faculty with Doctorates" (No.1 in the world), “Salary Today” (No.4 globally), "Salary Percentage Increase" (No.5 worldwide and No.1 in Asia) and "International course experience” (No.25 globally and No.1 in Asia). Overall, SAIF MF is ranked No. 13 among all 55 participating business schools and No. 1 in Asia for the third time. Among Asian schools in the ranking, SAIF is followed by Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (No.15) and Guanghua School of Management of Peking University (No.17).

On March 30th, Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) held the Faculty and Staff Meeting of 2020 Spring Semester. Prof. Guangshao Tu, Adjunct Professor of SJTU and Executive Director of SAIF, and Prof. Jiang Wang, Executive Director of SAIF and Chairman of SAIF Faculty Council, delivered speeches respectively. Prof. Chun Chang, Executive Dean of SAIF, and Prof. Qigui Zhu, Secretary of the CPC SAIF Committee, served as keynote speakers. Nearly 200 SAIF professors and staff attended the event on site or remotely.

After the outbreak of COVID-19, SAIF Alumni Association published a "Support Initiative" on January 27th, calling on all alumni to act immediately and do their best to make contributions to the people in Hubei and Wuhan, support the tough battle against the epidemic and overcome difficulties together with love and practice. The Initiative received a warm response from all SAIF alumni. Alumni clubs, classes and enterprises have been positively involved in the move. Statistics shows that as of now, 138 alumni or their companies and 9 classes have donated a total of RMB681 million in cash and materials worth hundreds of millions of RMB, including nearly 340,000 protective suits, 2.97 million masks, 1.36 million pairs of gloves, 1,500 pairs of goggles, 110 tons of medical alcohol, 3,350 tons of sodium hypochlorite disinfectant, 10,000 boxes of testing reagents, 2 anti-epidemic special sanitation vehicles, 1 high-temperature disinfection and anti-epidemic vehicle, 40 heat guns, 338 air purifiers , 30 medical ventilators, 200 negative pressure suction devices, 200 monitors and other daily supplies worth approximately RMB356 million.

On March 1st 2020, SAIF launched a number of cloud-based online courses. The first "Curriculum in March" covered 32 courses, of which 14 courses went alive for MBA and MF students in the first week, involving 17 classes and around 850 students. In addition to the new hardware system, the changes in the form of teaching also posed challenges to the faculty. In this regard, Prof. Hong Yan, Deputy Dean of SAIF, explained, "Before the start of the curriculum, we have conducted several rounds of communication with all the involved professors, who have adjusted the forms of teaching and added the parts of online interaction and Q&As. The trial lectures were also executed in advance. The only purpose is to prevent the potential deterioration of teaching quality due to changes in the teaching forms." More than 70% of the 32 courses launched in March used live streaming technology. The faculty also provided online tutoring to students through after-class interactive communication and Q&A. Though the COVID-19 temporarily prevents SAIF students from returning to campus, it couldn’t stop their dedication to study, not to mention the commitment and efforts made by SAIF faculty and staff. With the joint efforts, the class bells rang in the cloud will surely be the most beautiful sound in this special spring.

The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) of the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania released the "Global Go To Think Tank Index Report 2019 " on January 30th, 2020 (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"). The ranking of "Top 100 Think Tanks to Watch" lists four Chinese think tanks, including Shanghai Institute of Advanced Finance (SAIF), which also enters the list of "Top 100 Best Managed Think Tanks in 2019". It marks the 14th edition of the Report, which is one of the most authoritative reports of think tank research and development in the world. Through an objective and fair research system, it aims to engage in ongoing research and comprehensive ranking of global think tanks and review their roles in governments and society around the world, so as to strengthen the capacity building and improve the performance of worldwide think tanks. In 2019, of all the 8,248 think tanks catalogued in the TTCSP’s Global Think Tank Database, Europe features the most think tanks, with a total of 2,219 (26.9%). The number of Asian think tanks is the same as last year. China ranks as the third largest country in the world in terms of the quantity of think tanks (507). SAIF ranks No. 2 in China and No. 38 in the world in "Top 100 Think Tanks to Watch in 2019". In the list of " Top 100 Best Managed Think Tanks in 2019", SAIF ranks 40th in the world, only after the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC) (31st in the world) among all Chinese peers. These highlights further prove that SAIF's research strength and role of a think tank have attracted worldwide attention.

On January 22nd, 2020, Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) held 2020 Annual Board Meeting at SAIF Xuhui Campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). Qing Wu, Member of the Standing Committee of CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, Vice Mayor of Shanghai and Chairman of SAIF, presided over the meeting and delivered a speech. Mingbo Chen, Deputy Secretary General of Shanghai Municipal Government and Deputy Chairman of SAIF; Jing Lu, Director of Shanghai Education Commission and Director of SAIF; Dong Xie, Director of Shanghai Financial Affairs Bureau and Director of SAIF; Sixian Jiang, Secretary of CPC Committee at SJTU and Deputy Chairman of SAIF; Zhongqin Lin, President of SJTU and Director of SAIF; Guangshao Tu, Adjunct Professor of SJTU and Executive Director of SAIF; Zhen Huang, Vice President of SJTU and Director of SAIF; and Jiang Wang, Chairman of SAIF Faculty Council and Executive Director of SAIF, attended the meeting. Qi Liang, Director of Human Resources Department of SJTU, Yaguang Wang, Dean of the Graduate School, Chun Chang, Executive Dean of SAIF, Qigui Zhu, Secretary of CPC SAIF Committee, and other SJTU department heads and senior professors were also present. At the meeting, Prof. Jiang Wang presented “2019 Annual Work Report” on behalf of SAIF Board. Chairman Qing Wu and other directors highly affirmed the progress and achievements made by SAIF over the past decade, in particular in 2019, and brainstormed ideas and suggestions for SAIF’s future development. They hoped that SAIF will review the feedback of recent international assessment, continue to adhere to the track of internationalization, specialization and market orientation, and build up a world-class financial school, in order to serve as an important academic support, talent highland and brand of Shanghai as an international financial hub, and make its contributions to the upgrading of Shanghai's urban energy level and core competency.