The School of Economics at Shandong University offers doctoral program, which typically takes four years to complete. This program is open to international students with all instructions in English. Upon the completion of the program, graduates will be awarded a Ph.D. Degree in Economics recognized by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China.

This program is designed after the cutting-edge curriculums of Ph.D. students who complete the Ph.D. program should have a thorough understanding of the principles of economic theory and its applications in various fields, along with an ability to think systematically about, and apply quantitative methods to, economic problems. The program gives equal emphasis to these two goals with formal courses and assessments, seminars, workshops, papers, and the dissertation. Upon completion of four-year academic training, students are expected for research work, senior management talents and members in academia.

Throughout the program, there are formal provisions for students to engage in original research work. Doctoral students should be well trained with capabilities on knowledge acquisition, scientific research, academic innovation, academic judgement and academic communications. Students are also encouraged to take part in workshops in their fields of primary interest.

Who is eligible to apply?

1.Applicants must be Non-Chinese citizens in good health, at the age of 18 or above, and possess a valid and private passport;

2.Applicants must have Master's degree or above;

·Applicants who have not yet graduated can obtain a pre-graduation letter from their current educational institution stating their expected date of graduation. If accepted, applicant is required to provide the original graduation certificate upon registration. Otherwise, the acceptance qualification will be cancelled.

3.Language Requirement:

·Applicants with English as native language are exempted from English language certificate.

·Applicants from non-English speaking countries must provide IELTS (6.5 or above), TOEFL (iBT 90 points or above) or other comparable certification of English proficiency.

·Applicants who have obtained their highest degree with English as the medium of instruction are exempted from providing language proficiency certification, but proof indicating the language medium is required.

Application Checklist:

Application Form

Photo Page of Passport

Master's Degree / Pre-Graduation Letter

Official University/College Transcript

Two Letters of Recommendation (from prof/associate prof. or enterprise leaders)

Personal Statement

Proof of Language Proficiency (if applicable)

Proof of Employment (if applicable)

Other Attachments (if needed)

Course Requirements:Total 9 courses with 22 Credits are required, which are usually taken in the first 3 semesters. See curriculum below.

First Semester

● Quantitative Methods in Economics (3 Credits)

● Advanced Microeconomics (3 Credits)

● China Survey (2 Credits)

● Chinese (4 Credits)

● Elective (2 Credits)

Second Semester

● Advanced Macroeconomics (3 Credits)

● Econometrics I (1.5 Credits)

● Elective (2 Credits)

Third Semester

● Econometrics II (1.5 Credits)

Advanced Lectures(5 Credits): Students are required to attend weekly lectures by distinguished scholars from China and around the world, in order to broaden the scope of their knowledge and formulate their own research ideas. The total credits are 5 with total 15 attendances of lectures and 5 presentations in the first 3 semesters.

Seminar(1 Credit): This is a group discussion focusing on a typical topic, mainly on the research interest of this research group organized regularly, in order to encourage students to fully engage in interactions, exchange of innovative ideas and to strengthen their ability on independent research; Supervisors are still encouraged to give academic advices on their students through seminars. Doctoral students should attend once every two weeks at least each semester starting from the 2^ndsemester, which should be recorded.

Core Courses

The core course is an integrated set of subjects in economic theory, mathematics for economists, and econometrics.

Quantitative Methods in Economics

Course Description:This course covers the basic mathematical techniques required for rigorous study of economics, and it will provide extensive instruction on applications of these techniques to economic problems. Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to apply mathematical techniques to problems in advanced microeconomic and macroeconomic theory that appear in typical first-semester Ph.D. courses in good economics graduate programs and to master additional mathematical techniques efficiently and effectively as needed for graduate economics coursework and research. This course is particularly appropriate for students planning to pursue graduate studies in economics or related fields.

Advanced Microeconomics

Prerequisites:Principles of Microeconomics, Calculus

Course Description:Advanced Microeconomics studies the behavior of individuals and firms in making decisions regarding the allocation of limited resources. Typically, it applies to markets where goods or services are bought and sold. Microeconomics examines how these decisions and behaviors affect the supply and demand for goods and services, which determines prices, and how prices, in turn, determine the quantity supplied and quantity demanded of goods and services. This course also looks into how imperfect information can affect the economic outcome, and how preferences can be aggregated into the choice of the society.

Advanced Macroeconomics

Prerequisites:Principles of Macroeconomics, Calculus

Course Description:Advanced Macroeconomics is a graduate course that introduces you to the advanced topics of macroeconomics. We start this course by studying an economy’s long run performance: The economic growth. We first introduce the basic Solow growth model and then incorporate technological progress and human capital accumulation into the model. In the second half of the course, we will explore an economy’s short run performance: The business cycles. We will define and date business cycles and measure cyclical and trend components.

Econometrics I

Prerequisites:Calculus, Basic Statistics, Linear Algebra

Course Description:Building on the fundamental mechanics of statistics and probability, econometrics I familiarizes students with the empirical application of statistical principles to problems of measurement in economics. The course focuses on the intuition and application of statistical reasoning, the gathering and manipulation of economic data, and the use of econometric software STATA. The core of this course comprises Random Variables, Expectation Theory, Probability Distributions, Hypothesis Testing and the Two-Variable and Multi-Variable Linear Regression Model.

Econometrics II

Prerequisites:Calculus, Basic Statistics, Linear Algebra

Course Description:This course is the second section of introductory econometrics. We will continue to study multivariable regression models, including, discrete choice models, instrumental variables regression, simple panel data linear models, analysis of random experiments and quasi-experiments, and regression with time series data. The objective of the course is for the students to learn some basic skills on how to conduct – and how to critique – empirical studies in economics and related fields. The course statistical software is STATA.

Doctor’s Dissertation

Doctoral dissertation should be completed independently under the guidance of the supervisor, which is a systematic and complete research on some theories or applications in this field. It requires the doctoral student to stand in the forefront of academic research and have the courage to explore new and unknown fields. The thesis must be innovative and have significant academic value. Thus, it requires that students must have quite a comprehensive theoretical knowledge and a thorough understanding in his/her research filed, as well as relatively high level of independent research ability, be able to put forward the original ideas in this field and generate useful research results. Therefore, compared with the bachelor’s thesis and master’s thesis, the doctoral thesis has a higher academic standard and plays a more important role in promoting the development of the relevant research filed.

Highlights of the Program

Students earn the Shandong University Doctor degree in a program that is tailored to the needs of international students, who want to have an in-depth exposure to Chinese economy, Chinese economy reform and practice, and Chinese tradition and modern culture, and who have potential intent to work or advance their career in China in the future.

Contact Information

International Admission Office Joy Han, Program Coordinator

Department of International Affairs School of Economics

Email:admission@sdu.edu.cn Email: foreigneco@sdu.edu.cn

www.istudy.sdu.edu.cn http://soe.sdu.edu.cn/