School of Foreign Languages and Literatures

The School of Foreign Languages and Literatures developed from the English Department established in 1912. In the process of about 100 years’ development, numerous renowned professors and researchers have worked here as the school faculty members. Many graduates have become well-known people with great achievements. Currently the school has a strong team of faculty members with diversified academic backgrounds at home and abroad. The school has an open, multicultural teaching and researching atmosphere.

I. Academic programs

Currently the school is made up of 4 departments: the English Department, the Japanese Department, the Russian Department and the Department of College English, which provide BA, MA and PhD programmes in linguistics, literature, translation studies, cultural studies and language educations. According to China University Ranking in 2008, our English Language and Literature program ranks No.7, the Russian Language and Literature program ranks No. 4, and the Japanese Language and Literature program ranks No. 10.

II. Faculty

Currently the school has 95 faculty members, including 20 professors, 38 associate professors, 34 lecturers and 3 assistant lecturers, among whom 26 teachers hold a doctoral degree and 62 hold a master degree. 60% of the teachers earned their degrees at universities other than BNU.

III. Student enrolment

Each year the BA programmes take in about 140 undergraduate students, who major in English, Japanese and Russian. The MA programmes take in about 80 full-time students who undertake degree studies in linguistics, literature, translation studies and language education. In addition, the English MA programs take in about 50 in-service English teachers for degree studies.
The doctoral programmes in English and Russian admit about 15 candidates each year. The school also takes in post-doctoral researchers, who undertake part of the research and teaching work at the school.

IV. Research

The school attaches great importance to research. It has set up 7 research institutions: Center for Functional Linguistics, Institute of Linguistic Studies, Institute of Foreign of Language Assessment, Center of Foreign Language Education and Teacher Education, Institute of Literature Studies, Institute of Comparative Cultural and Translation Studies, and Center for Educational Technology. In addition, the school publishes two journals: Russian Literature and Foreign Language Teaching in Schools.

V. International Cooperation

In order to boom international exchange and cooperation, the school has established relationships with universities in the USA, the UK, Japan, Russia, Australia, Norway and China Hong Kong. Programmes in student exchange, teacher exchange and joint research projects have had very positive results.