The School of Finance traces its origins to the Investment Economics program, which began enrolling students in 1988. After more than three decades of development, it has become a major base for finance talent cultivation and scientific research in Guangdong and across South China, ranking among the leading schools in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in overall educational capacity and quality. Committed to fostering virtue through education and focusing on what the nation needs, what the industry lacks and what the Greater Bay Area urgently requires, the School advances the integration of values, international perspectives, business with technology, and business with law, cultivating high-calibre finance professionals with a sense of mission, a global vision, innovative thinking and applied skills.

The School offers a complete talent cultivation system covering bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels. It was authorized to enroll master's students in 2003 and began admitting students in Master of Finance. In 2010, it became among the first institutions in China authorized to enroll students to Master of Finance and Master of Insurance. In 2021, Applied Economics became a doctoral degree authorization point, and in 2023 the School began enrolling doctoral students in Finance. The School offers five undergraduate programs: Finance, Investment, Insurance, Financial Engineering and FinTech. Finance, Investment and Insurance are recognized as National First-class Undergraduate Major, Financial Engineering is a Featured and First-class Major of Guangdong Province, and FinTech is a new program that first enrolled students in 2022. The School hosts a number of provincial and municipal non-corporate research institutions, including the Pearl River Delta Collaborative Innovation Development Center for Sci-Tech Finance Industry, the Institute of Local Finance, the Greater Bay Area Special Assets Research Institute, the Guangzhou Futures Trading Research Center and the Sino-Swiss Carbon Finance Research Institute. Two provincial research platforms, namely the Pearl River Delta Collaborative Innovation Center for Sci-Tech Finance Industry and the Institute of Local Finance, were selected as CTTI (Chinese Think Tank Index) source think tanks in 2019 and 2024 respectively. Jointly built with the Guangzhou Local Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau and the Guangzhou Exchange Group, the Greater Bay Area Special Assets Research Institute was successfully selected as a Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences in Guangzhou in 2024.

The School currently enrolls 1,867 undergraduates, 436 master's students and 7 doctoral students. It has trained more than 10,000 undergraduates and over 1,300 master's students in total.

The School has a strong faculty and outstanding research capacity. It currently has 75 full-time teachers, more than 97% of whom hold doctoral degrees and over 40% have overseas experience. Among them are 16 professors, 25 associate professors and 41 doctoral and master's supervisors, together with 1 selectee of the Ministry of Education's Program for New Century Excellent Talents, 2 Pearl River Scholars of Guangdong Province, 3 candidates of the Thousand-Hundred-Ten Talent project of Guangdong's universities and 3 Nanyue Outstanding Teachers. The School hosts several provincial research innovation teams, including those in Industrial Finance and Local Financial Risk Monitoring and Prevention. Over the past five years, faculty members have undertaken 68 government-funded research projects, including 14 National Natural Science Foundation and National Social Science Fund projects (one of them a key project); 54 ministerial and provincial projects, including 9 Humanities and Social Sciences Fund projects of the Ministry of Education, 1 National Statistical Science Research project, 17 projects such as Guangdong Natural Science Foundation and Guangdong Science and Technology Program projects, and 27 Guangdong Philosophy and Social Science Planning projects (one of them a major project); and 27 commissioned projects. Faculty members have published more than 200 papers in leading Chinese journals such as Economic Research Journal, Management World, China Economic Quarterly, Journal of Management Sciences in China and Journal of Financial Research, as well as in JASA, JOE, JEBO, JEDC and JCF; published 19 textbooks and monographs; received 6 awards including the Guangdong Provincial Award for Outstanding Achievements in Philosophy and Social Sciences and the Guangdong Provincial Award for Outstanding Financial Research; and produced more than 20 reports that have been adopted or endorsed by government bodies.

The School emphasizes the integration of research and education, using research to strengthen teaching. Through its Research Mentor System and research-based teaching, high-quality research resources are transformed into personalized teaching resources. By encouraging students to take part in the Challenge Cup, financial modeling competitions and the School's Elite Cup academic paper (business plan) competition, the School develops students' innovative capacity, practical skills and cross-disciplinary thinking. Regular events such as the Midday Teaching and Research Salon, the Pazhou Finance Forum and the National Finance High-end Academic Lecture Series, together with academic conferences co-organized with leading domestic and international journals, strengthen academic exchange and broaden students' horizons.

The School also emphasizes industry-education integration and collaborative education with enterprises. Drawing on its national experimental teaching center and national innovation experimental zone, it provides on-campus simulation learning and business incubation to develop students' practical and innovative abilities. In collaboration with the Guangdong Branch of China Construction Bank, it offers the CCB-GDUFE Digital Finance Class. The School has built 6 Guangdong graduate joint training demonstration bases, 2 Guangdong provincial undergraduate practical teaching bases and more than 20 other types of practice bases, and has engaged more than 91 senior executives from various financial institutions as off-campus mentors.

The School pursues an internationalized approach to education and adopts Sino-foreign collaborative training. It was the first school in Guangdong to cooperate with renowned foreign universities, innovating its talent cultivation model through a 2+2 joint program. The two universities recognize each other's credits and jointly confer degrees, creating a fast track to prestigious overseas universities for motivated domestic students. More than 80% of graduates of this program have been admitted to master's programs at leading overseas universities. In 2025, more than 24.35% of students chose to pursue further studies.