Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU) was born with its specialty in railway and developed along with its management disciplines. As early as 1909, the Qing government established Beijing Railway Management Training Institute, the predecessor of BJTU, proclaiming the first institute of higher education that cultivated management talents in the history of China.

The disciplines of economics and management, having started at the very beginning of BJTU, are naturally the most long standing disciplines on campus. Over more than one century, the growths of disciplines have been closely connected to the country’s destiny, overlapping endlessly with the university’s development, and rising more distinctive through the years of time. In 1996, BJTU integrated School of Economics, Department of Industrial and Construction Management Engineering, and Department of Materials Management Engineering to form School of Economics and Management (SEM). Hence the school has stepped into a new stage growing even stronger. In 2011, SEM was approved by the Ministry of Education as one of the first group of 17 pilot schools. In 2019, SEM was awarded 3 PALMS in the World Best Business Schools Ranking by Eduniversal, being prominent in its 10th position in the best business schools ranking in mainland China. December 28th in 2017, China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Development Center, the Ministry of Education announced the results of the fourth round of China Discipline Ranking, and the participating disciplines of our school obtained gratifying outcome with three first-level disciplines came up top. Among the list, our discipline of Business Administration ranks top 10% and stands in the A- Rating; Applied Economics, top 20% and B+; and coincidentally, Management Science and Engineering, top 20% and B+. This marks a significant milestone in our school’s discipline construction. The economics and management of the School have been ranked in the " Academic Ranking of World Universities", showing a strong comprehensive strength of disciplines.

As the earliest institute of higher education that provides business education in modern China, for over a century SEM has cultivated a large number of top talents and management elites. For example, Xu Jing, pioneer of China’s railway transportation economics discipline in China, Yang Rumei, one of China’s first four accountants, and Zhao Chuanyun, national reputed expert of railway transportation economics, they are all outstanding figures. At present, SEM has more than 5100 students, including more than 700 doctoral students, more than 2500 master students, nearly 1900 undergraduates (458 of them in Weihai Campus) and nearly 300 international students.

In recent years, the college has been awarded 1 national excellent teaching team, 3 Beijing excellent teaching teams, 1 national-renown teacher, 7 Beijing-renown teachers, 24 national and Beijing teaching achievement awards, 4 national first-class undergraduate specialty construction points, 2 national characteristic specialties, 2 national "comprehensive professional reform pilot project" major, 1 key construction specialty in Beijing. Through the evaluation of the Ministry of housing and urban rural development, there are 1 major, 2 national quality teaching materials, 42 Beijing excellent teaching materials, 9 12th Five Year Plan teaching materials, 2 national quality open video courses, 5 national excellent resource sharing courses, and 1 National virtual teaching experimental center. It has been approved 69 National University Students' innovation experiment projects and 68 Beijing Municipal University Students' innovation experiment projects. Undergraduate students have won 14 national first prizes and 25 provincial first prizes.

Since the establishment of Economics and Management disciplines, the University have gathered a large group of talented scholars and accomplished experts. Zeng Kunhua, founder of the University and the first railway management expert in modern China, Ma Yinchu, famous Chinese Economist and demographer, Hu Liyou, chief professor of Beiping Railway Management School of Chiao Tung University and many other experts have taught here. At present, SEM has 292 members of faculty and staff, with 215 faculty members including 57 professors, 97 associate professors and 51 lecturers. The School recruited faculty members with high-level talents that include academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, counselor of the State Council, National Renowned Teachers, Discipline Review Group of State Council members, "Ten Thousand Talents Plan", “New Century Excellent Talents Supporting Program” of the Ministry of Education, etc.

After years of development, the School now has four first-class disciplines: Applied Economics, Business Administration, Management Science and Engineering, and Public Management. Among them, Applied Economics, Business Administration and Management Science and Engineering have first-class doctoral programs and postdoctoral mobile stations. In each discipline there are professors who are selected as members of the discipline evaluation group of the State Council. It has one national key discipline industrial economics, three Beijing key disciplines: applied economics, management science and engineering, and enterprise management. It has three key research bases of philosophy and Social Sciences in Beijing: "Beijing Transportation Development Research Base", "Beijing Industrial Security Research Base", "Beijing Logistics Informatization Research Base", and one Beijing Social Science and Natural Science Collaborative Innovation Research Base "Beijing Humanities Transportation, Scientific Transportation and Green Transportation Research Base" (all four bases are listed in the index of China Think Tank Index (CTTI)), 1 national and regional research center of the Ministry of Education, "Central and Eastern Europe Research Center of Beijing Jiaotong University", 1 Beijing Laboratory "National Economic Security Early Warning Project Beijing Laboratory", 1 Beijing Key Laboratory "logistics Management And Technology Laboratory", 1 capital high-end think tank "Beijing Comprehensive Transportation Development Research Institute". 11 university level scientific research institutions are engaged in scientific research and social services.

The School has always been aiming at the needs of national strategy and industrial development, giving full play to the advantages of comprehensive disciplines in the field of economics and management. Through intellectual support, talent guarantee and professional services, the college actively serves the development of national transportation, modern logistics, capital finance, information technology, construction and real estate, tourism and health, and has become an important force to support and lead China's industrial development.

In the past five years, the annual average research funding of the School has exceeded 59 million yuan, with more than 1200 scientific research projects, ranking among the top among similar colleges in China. The college has been approved by 28 national social science funds, 39 National Natural Science Funds, 1 national key R & D project, 17 humanities and social sciences projects of the Ministry of Education, 80 projects of Beijing Philosophy and Social Affairs Office, as well as a number of international projects such as the seventh framework of EU and the world bank. He has published more than 2400 academic papers (including 10 highly cited papers, 151 SCI retrieval papers, 66 SSCI retrieval papers and 214 EI retrieval papers). 238 monographs, textbooks and translations were published. 49 expert suggestions have been selected into the Beijing social Science Fund Achievement Report, the National Social Science Fund Achievement Report, the Ministry of Education University Think Tank Special Issue or People's Daily for internal reference, and 25 of them were approved by the central or local leaders. SEM has won 9 awards above the provincial and ministerial level.

As an important part of social service, SEM has long carried out various professional business training including degree education class and course refresher class, enterprise internal training class, high-end development class, staff continuing education and other professional business training. It has established partnership with more than 200 enterprises and institutions, and signed strategic cooperation agreements with more than 100 local governments, enterprises and institutions.

SEM has established more than 90 cooperative projects with more than 60 internationally renowned universities such as the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Monash University, National University of Singapore and Waseda University. SEM has entered the AACSB and EQUIS accreditation process, and completed the submission of the self-assessment reports of the two major accrediations, and will welcome peer review team’s visit in 2020. At the same time, the School is also actively promoting the process of MBA program CAMEA accreditation. In 2013, the School established an International Advisory Committee, comparably earlier than the rest of domestic secondary colleges of higher education. By learning from first-class business schools worldwide, SEM is in full speed for pursuing internationalization of the School.