158 sophomores of Tsinghua SEM have gone to Shaanxi, Shandong, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia for a summer research program on China's rural areas recently as Tsinghua SEM second-year undergraduates summer field trip program 2008 has formally kicked off. The last batch of students arrived at Baotou city of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at 7:09 a.m. on June 30, 2008. Divided into 12 teams which are supervised by 12 faculty members and 16 graduate students, all the participating students will conduct a 8-day on-the-spot investigation under the theme of "rural finance “and submit their research report after the investigation.

Tsinghua SEM has been attaching great importance to students’ social practice, believing that the realization of a student's personal value should be combined with the national and social progress. In 2005, the School organized a rural investigation program with participation of all the second-year undergraduates and 190 faculty members of Tsinghua SEM. Participants conducted a 10-day research in Gansu Province on local agriculture, animal husbandry, and local financial situation. The program received financial support from HSBC in 2006 and become a regular program focusing on financial development in China's rural areas. Over the past three years, more than 500 faculty members and students have participated in the program and their trips have covered 17 provinces/regions, and 77 cities/counties across the country.

In April, 2008, the Tsinghua-HSBC Program and China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation joined forces to launch a Microcredit Foundation Pilot Program in Hebei Province. The program aims to provide financial assistance to poor people in the pilot region through microcredit service; help the farmer in pilot region enhance their self-reliance and self-developing capabilities by providing management, training and technology service for them; realize the fund's sustainable development by effective management; provide reliable data for Financial Development in China's Rural Areas Research Program; and serve as a social practice base for Tsinghua SEM students.

(Information session before the students' trip, attended by Dean Qian Yingyi and Associate Dean Yang Bin)