Directly administered by the Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Normal University, a key university under the construction plan of China’s national “211 Project", is known as the “Cradle of Teachers” in Northwest China. Nourished in a profound cultural background, it is located in the historical city of Xi’an with the Qinling Mountain in the south and Weihe River in the north. In recent years, Shaanxi Normal University has gained great development in discipline construction, talent training as well as campus environmental construction and has taken shape as a comprehensive and research university.

School of International Studies (SIS) was set up in 1998 as an education institution of Shaanxi Normal University, but its origin can date back to Department of Foreign Languages and Literature founded in 1972. With constant efforts and devotion put by all the faculty of the School in the past and at present, great achievements have been made in the discipline construction. Presently the School offers first class doctoral program and first class master's program of Foreign Language and Literature. The doctoral program includes four divisions, i.e. international and regional studies, Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Foreign Literature and Translation Studies. The master's programs include four academic degrees of English Language and Literature, Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Russian Linguistics and Literature and Japanese Linguistics and Literature, as well as two professional degrees of Master of Translation and Interpreting and Master of Education in English teaching.

At present there are 158 faculty members, 138 of whom are full-time teachers, including 16 professors and 42 associate professors, with 10 doctoral degree supervisors and 48 master's degree supervisors. 64 of the full-time teachers have got their doctoral degrees, and 64 have got their master's degrees, with 22 teachers as PhD students. Among the teaching staff, one teacher enjoys the Special Allowance of the State Council, and one teacher is selected as the outstanding talent of the Ministry of Education, with another two teachers as the outstanding talents of Shaanxi Province. An active teaching and research team composed of teachers with doctoral and master's degrees have been established. The School also recruits foreign experts to teach different courses.

Currently, over 1620 full-time students are studying in the School, including 1229 undergraduates and around 400 postgraduates. The employment rate of students upon graduation has kept over 95% over the past several years. The number of undergraduates getting admission to postgraduate study and going abroad is on the rise. The graduates’ comprehensive quality earns high recognition from society. Presently the School offers six undergraduate programs of English (teacher-training)，English(Innovative and Experimental Class), Translation, Russian, Japanese and French. There are six education institutions in the School, including English Department, Russian Department, Translation Department, French Department, and Foreign Language Teaching and Research Department for Non-English Majors. In addition, there are also over 10 research institutes and centers, including Academy of International and Regional Studies, the Ministry of Education Training and Research Center for Overseas Study, Overseas Tibetology Research Center, Chinese Culture Translation Center, Language and Cognition Research Institute, Foreign Language Education Research Center, Institute of Foreign Languages and Literature, Chinese and Western Culture Research Institute, Russian Center, MTI Education Center, Korean Culture Education Center, and Russia-East Europe Culture Research Institute. The English program of the School was granted the national level characteristic specialty, and Advanced English was granted as the provincial top-quality course, with Integrated Skills of English, English Grammar and College English as the key courses and top-quality construction courses of the University.

The Language Teaching & Learning Center of the School is one of the five centers for experimental teaching of fundamental courses in Shaanxi Normal University. It is equipped with advanced language labs, foreign language education broadcasting, and satellite station for making audio-visual material. In addition, the School has already set up the simultaneous interpreting laboratory, CAT (Computer Aided Translation) laboratory and audio-visual material studio. Over 20,000 books and over100 Chinese and foreign language journals and newspapers are available in the Reference Room, providing powerful support to the teaching, learning and academic research of students and teachers in the School.

(Data updated by May,1, 2020)

(Translated by YANG Dongmin)