Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU)

Also known as Běiwài (Chinese: 北外) in Mandarin, the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) is one of the prominent foreign language teaching institutions of China. Spread over an area of 304,533 square meters, the university complex falls on both sides of the Third Ring Road Situated in Beijing. Affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the BFSU was founded in 1941. It is classified as a key university under the Ministry of Education. The student dormitory area is over 40,000 square meters while the library is 9997 square meters.

There is a hi-tech audiovisual center, dining halls, and gymnasium as well as tennis courts. It is also included under the Project 211, a program launched by the Ministry of Education to develop such higher seats of learning in 1996. It offers a wide-ranging of language learning courses.
There is more than 1,413 academic staff; of them more than 600 are faculty members. Moreover, the university invites around 120 experts and teachers from approximately 20 countries to deliver lectures every year. The university is one of the first Chinese educational institutions to attract foreign students. The student strength of Beijing Foreign Studies University is 8,600.

Besides, it is one of the six pre-degree education bases (authorized by PRC Ministry of Education), and also one of the three national Chinese language education bases accredited by PRC State Council.

Among the prominent faculty members are Wang Zuoliang who is a literary critic and poet, and professor of English literature; prominent educator Xu Guozhang; Zhou Jueliang who is a literary critic, and a professor of English literature; Hu Wenzhong who is a professor of Australian literature, educator, and co-host of BBC English language teaching program Follow Me!; eminent educator Chen Lin; Co-authors of New Concept English and linguists He Qixin and Jin Limin.

The following 18 languages (arranged in an alphabetical order) are taught at the university:

• Arabic


• English


• French


• German


• Greek


• Hebrew


• Irish


• Italian


• Japanese


• Korean


• Latin


• Persian


• Portuguese


• Russian


• Spanish


• Thai


• Turkish


• Vietnamese

Among its illustrious alumni are Nobel laureate Gao Xingjian, and other famous writers including Liu Zhenyun; Bi Shumin; Chen Shucai; and Jin Zhong. The list also includes such academicians as Bai Ruoyun, Chen Xiaomei, Hu Ying, Liu Haiming and Wang Ban. Several of the BFSU alumni have made a name in the country’s political sphere as well. Some of them are State Councilor Li Guixian, Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China Li Zhaoxing and the following five Vice Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China, namely: Zhou Nan, Zhang Hanzhi, Fu Ying, Zhang Deguang, and Wu Dawei. BSFU alumni have also carved a niche for themselves in the world of commerce and media. Among them are He Jiong, Jason Tom who is Chinese American beatboxer, entrepreneur, and mentor, TV host Yang Lan, and Xu Gehui. BFSU is the first university in China to offer online its courses in Law in the English medium. It began this scheme in 2012. International professionals can get an online LLM degree awarded jointly by BFSU, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. It is a unique opening for international law and non-law professionals to attain expertise in the Chinese legal system.

Earlier, interested international law students had to station themselves in China for two or more years. It is to do away with such an impractical practice that the online system has been introduced and take the Chinese law courses to the global market. The demand for this course has been on the rise what with the growing importance of China as a global player. You can get the entire information about the law course at www.bfsulaw.com.

Besides the Law School, BFSU has the following eight Schools with each of them having departments on various languages.

School of Asian and African Studies

• Department of Korean Studies


• Department of Southeast Asian studies

• Burma studies


• Cambodian Studies


• Filipinology


• Indologie


• Lao Studies


• Malay Studies


• Thai studies


• Vietnamese studies

• Department of South Asian Studies

• Sinhala


• Hindi


• Urdu

• Department of West Asian and African Studies

• Hausa


• Hebrew studies


• Persian Studies


• Swahili


• Turkology

School of Chinese Language and Literature

• Department of Chinese Language


• Department of Chinese as a foreign language

School of English and International Studies

• Department of Irish studies


• Department of English Studies


• Department of Translation and Interpretation


• Department of International Journalism and Communication

School of European Languages and Culture

• Department of Eastern and Southern European Studies

• Albanology


• Bulgarian Studies


• Croatian studies


• Czech studies


• Greek Studies


• Hungarian studies


• Italian Studies


• Latin


• Maltese Studies


• Polish Studies


• Romanian Studies


• Slovak Studies


• Serbian Studies


• Slovene Studies


• Department of Northern European Studies

• Danish Studies


• Dutch Studies


• Estonian Studies


• Finnish Studies


• Icelandic Studies


• Latvian Studies


• Lithuanian Studies


• Norwegian Studies

School of International Business

• Department of Finance


• Department of Accounting


• 国际金融与商务研究所


• Department of International economics


• Department of Business Administration


• Department of E-commerce and Information Management

School of International Relations and Diplomacy

• Department of Diplomacy


• Department of International Politics


• 国际问题研究所

School of Russian Studies Институт Русского Языка

• Russian Studies


• Ukrainian studies

Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation BFSU also has the following five independent departments: Departments

Department of Arabic Studies

• Arabic Studies

Department of French and Francophone Studies

• French Studies


• Swiss Studies

Department of German Studies

• German Studies


• Swedish Studies

Department of Japanese Studies

• Japanese Studies

Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies

• Spanish Studies


• Portuguese Studies

Academic & Department

• School of English and International Studies


• School of Russian


• Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation


• School of English for Specific Purposes (SESP)


• School of International Business


• School of Chinese Language and Literature


• School of International Relations and Diplomacy


• School of Law


• School of Asian and African Languages