Founded in 1941, the School of Russian is the oldest member of Beijing Foreign Studies University.
The School hosts one of Beijing municipal key disciplines and offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs. As of September 2015, the School had 284 undergraduates, 46 master’s candidates, 21 doctoral candidates, 6 people doing post-doctoral research and 5 international students. It has 23 staff members, including 19 teachers and 4 supporting staff. Among our teachers, there are 8 professors (including 5 doctoral supervisors), 8 associate professors, 3 lecturers and 1 foreign expert. 16 of our teachers and supporting staff have doctoral degrees. So far, 5 of our teachers were winners of the Pushkin Prize while in China so far only 20 people have won this prize, a top honor in the Russian literary world. Many of our teachers have won other Russian prizes such as the Presidential Prize, the Friendship Prize and the Maxim Gorky Literature Prize. Core textbooks for Russian language programs compiled by our teachers have received Beijing municipal and national awards and are used by over 100 colleges and universities in China.
The School focuses on teaching and research programs involving linguistics, literature, translation, culture, regional studies, international relations, international politics, Russian economy, etc. It offers a variety of skill-based language courses such as language practice, grammar, listening, reading, translation, interpreting and writing, as well as knowledge-based courses such as Russian geography, history, culture, literature, social and regional studies, economy and trade, and foreign relations. We offer both academic master’s programs and professional master’s programs. Our master’s and doctoral programs focus on modern Russian language, Russian literature, Russian social and culture studies as well as regional studies.
The School has produced high quality professionals with good language competence and profound knowledge. Our students have performed exceptionally well in Test for Russian Majors Band 4 and Band 8, and won prizes in national competitions for Russian majors. Our doctoral programs have produced a large number of college teachers and administrators for Chinese colleges and universities.
With further development of Sino-Russian strategic partnership and trade relations, our graduates enjoy good career prospects. With an employment rate of nearly 100%, they work in government bodies, state-owned enterprises, Russian companies in China and so on.
The School maintains close partnerships with Russian universities such as Moscow State University, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Moscow State Linguistic University, Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, People’s Friendship University of Russia and Saint Petersburg State University. Each year, we send our students and teachers for short-term study programs. At the same time, we also admit international students to study in our undergraduate and postgraduate Russian language programs.
To meet the challenge of education transformation and upgrading, we are committed to take advantage of our strong language and literature expertise to develop world-class language teaching methods and models with Chinese characteristics and produce high quality translators and interpreters, research and administrative professionals for regional studies as well as professionals engaged in Sino-Russian cultural exchanges.
