China Agricultural University (CAU), founded in 1905, is a university in Beijing specializing in agriculture, biology, engineering, veterinary medicine, economics, management, humanities, and social science. It was formed in 1995 by a merger of Beijing Agricultural University and Beijing Agricultural Engineering University. At present there are more than 14,000 undergraduate and 4,500 graduate students studying in the university.

As an academic unit of CAU, CEM comes from the Department of Agricultural Economics founded in the former Imperial University of Peking in 1927. In 1949, the Beijing Agricultural University (BAU) was established by a merger of Peking University’s College of Agriculture, Tsinghua University’s College of Agriculture, and North China University’s College of Agriculture. The Department of Agricultural Economics was consequently set up in BAU. In 1985, the Department was expanded to be the College of Agricultural Economics and Management and then further expanded to be the College of Economics and Management in 1993. The current College of Economics and Management which was formed in 2002 is a merger of the College of Engineering Management set up at CAU in 1995, and the former College of Economics and Management

In 2009, CEM has 106 faculty and staff, including 28 full professors, 48 associate professors, 21 assistant professors, and 9 staff, and more than 1300 undergraduate, 150 masters, 225 MBA, and 191 doctoral students.