The School of Foreign Studies (SFS)
Website of the School: http://sfs.xjtu.edu.cn/en/
The School of Foreign Studies (SFS) of Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) dates to 1897 and was called the Department of Western Languages, Nan Yang College. SFS grew out of the Department of Foreign Literature, which was established in 1928 at Jiaotong University. At present, SFS is authorized to offer a Ph.D. program in Systemics of Language and Culture and master's programs in Language and Literature (first-level discipline) and Translation and Interpreting (MTI, Master of Translation and Interpreting). SFS offers 3 undergraduate programs: English (including bilingual majors of English & German, English & French, and English & Russian), Japanese, and French. The total annual new enrollment number of SFS is about 90, including the Ph.D. program in Systemics of Language and Culture and Master's programs in Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, English Language and Literature, Japanese Language and Literature, French Language and Literature, as well as MTI (English, Japanese).
The departments and institutions of SFS include the English Department, Japanese Department, French Department, German Department, Russian Department, College English Teaching Center, Postgraduate English Teaching Center, MTI Education Center, Foreign Languages Research Center, Center of Japanese Studies, Center of Cross-Cultural Studies, and other support institutions such as the Center of Translation and Interpreting, Teaching Experiment Center, and the Center for International Language Tests.
The school has about 200 staff members, including 21 professors and 75 associate professors. Each year, about 30 experts and teachers from other countries are invited to work at SFS, and over 20 visiting professors and part-time professors come to visit or teach. Over 480 undergraduates, 140 master's students, and 50 doctoral students are studying at SFS.
SFS boasts a group of brilliant and talented faculty who are involved in teaching excellence, actively engaged in a wide range of research fields in foreign linguistics and applied linguistics, foreign literature and culture, translation, and country and regional studies. In the recent 5 years, the faculty completed a total of 15 national-level research projects, received 12.01 million Yuan research funds, published 76 books and 145 SSCI/CSSCI-indexed journal articles, with 8 advices accepted by provincial/ministerial-level departments. In addition, we have won 1 second award for outstanding research achievements granted by the Ministry of Education of China and 8 awards for outstanding research achievements in philosophy and social sciences granted by Shaanxi Province.
In 2012, SFS was authorized to offer the Ph.D. program in Systemics of Language and Culture, thus forming a integrated education system covering undergraduate, postgraduate and Ph.D.. SFS has established ties to 17 well-known universities in the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries, and has implemented extensive exchange and cooperation programs. This has greatly supported our teachers and students to study, exchange, visit, and establish further cooperation with overseas counterparts. Each year, over 20 experts from home and abroad are invited to lecture at SFS.
Since 2010, SFS has been located in the Shaw Building. In 2019, SFS established an office at the Western China Science & Technological Innovation Harbour (iHarbour). SFS has advanced research platforms and rich online resources for language learning including classrooms with recording and broadcasting system, multimedia and digital language laboratories, simultaneous interpreting laboratories, and a professional recording studio. The SFS library has amassed a collection of more than 30,000 volumes of books and dozens of academic journals, providing plentiful resources for foreign language teaching and research.