China's elite Tsinghua University on Thursday set up a graduate school for financial studies with the central bank and appointed a former deputy governor of the bank as the dean.

Minister of Education Yuan Guiren and Central Banker Zhou Xiaochuan attended the opening ceremony in Beijing.

Wu Xiaoling, the dean, who served as deputy head of the People's Bank of China (PBoC) from 2000 to 2008, said Wudaokou Financial School aims to become the world's top graduate school for financial studies.

The school will pool the world's top teachers and researchers, focus on high-end studies in finance, and serve as a think-tank for policymakers of the PBoC and the country's other financial institutes, Wu said.

Wudaokou Financial School, named after its location near Tsinghua, was relaunched from PBoC's Graduate School, which was set up in 1981 and gained its name for training China's top financial talents.

Wu, 65, was herself a graduate from the school in 1984.

The new school under Tsinghua will carry on its tradition of "small-but-elite" education as it only offers master and doctoral degrees in finance, Wu said.

Originally founded in 1911 as a training school for students seeking to study abroad, Tsinghua is best known for training large numbers of scientists and engineers, including Nobel Prize laureates Lee Tsung-dao, Yang Chen-ning and Lee Yuan-tseh.

Tsinghua is also a cradle for China's politicians. Its alumni include President Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Vice President Xi Jinping, and former premier Zhu Rongji.

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