Beijing Foreign Studies University, or BFSU, is one of China’s leading universities under the direct administration of the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE). It is listed under Project 211, Project 985’s Innovation Platform and the Double First-Class Project of China.

Today, BFSU houses China’s largest non-general language teaching cluster that offers courses in some less commonly taught European, Asian and African languages, as the first of the MOE’s special teaching programs. While best known for its excellence in foreign languages and literature, BFSU has also launched programs in fields such as humanities, law, economics, management and education. It now offers courses in languages including (in chronological order) Russian, English, French, German, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Romanian, Japanese, Arabic, Cambodian, Lao, Sinhalese, Malay, Swedish, Portuguese, and more. To better serve China’s diplomatic efforts, it teaches the official languages of the 183 countries that have established diplomatic relations with China.

Guided by its motto “Learn with an open mind; Serve a great cause”, BFSU has trained a significant number of professionals with strong language competence who went on to work in and outside China as diplomats, translators/interpreters, educators, entrepreneurs, journalists, lawyers, and bankers, among other occupations. In the BFSU alumni community, over 500 have worked as ambassadors, and over 3,000 as counselors. BFSU is thus known as “a cradle for diplomats”.

BFSU has signed exchange and cooperation agreements with more than 300 universities and academic institutions from over 80 countries and regions. It has launched cooperation programs with many renowned foreign universities, including the University of Cambridge, the University of Chicago, Nanyang Technological University, the University of Tokyo, the Australian National University, Sorbonne University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Malaya, Moscow State University, the University of São Paulo, Heidelberg University, National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Autonomous University of Barcelona. BFSU also works as a partner with foreign universities to operate 23 Confucius Institutes in 18 countries across Asia, Europe and the Americas, the highest number among universities in China.