Beijing Foreign Studies University is a public university in Beijing, China. BFSU boasts the oldest language programs in China offering the largest number of foreign language majors on different educational levels. Located in Haidian District of Beijing BFSU is divided into east and west campuses. It is a Chinese state Double First Class University identified by Chinese Ministry of Education. BFSU is commonly known as Beiwai (Chinese: 北外) in Mandarin; Beijing Foreign Studies University is a sister school to Peking University (PKU) which is also subordinate to the Ministry of Education. For this reason BFSU students are able to register for courses at PKU.
BFSU is a research university specializing in foreign studies. BFSU ranked 17th out of 2,965 universities in China according to statistics based on National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) from 2012 to 2019. BFSU retained its ranking in 2020.
BFSU alumni are well known in Chinese diplomacy circles such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Around 400 ambassadors and over 1,000 counselors graduated from BFSU. BFSU is thus known as the “Cradle of Diplomats”. BFSU was affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from its establishment in 1941 to the early 1980s and was classified a key university under the Ministry of Education. BFSU is praised for offering the widest range of language studies in China: as of September 2019, there are 101 foreign languages being taught in this university.
As of 2021, Beijing Foreign Studies University ranked no.1 among universities specializing in language and research according to the latest edition of the Best Chinese Universities Ranking. The university consistently features in the top 100 international universities in linguistics as ranked by the QS World University Rankings.
BFSU qualified for the first round of the competition in its efforts to enter Project 211, a university development plan launched by the Ministry of Education in 1996. BFSU is directly under the leadership of the Chinese Ministry of Education. BFSU is one of China’s top universities listed under “Double First Class University Plan“, former “Project 211” and “Project 985 Innovative Platforms for Key Disciplines“. The government-sponsored campaign selected BFSU to governmentally support BFSU.
BFSU has more than 1,000 international students from all over the world, more than 100 countries. Especially, South Korean, German, Malaysian (IBS) and Japanese students (School of Chinese Language and Literature) are the largest ethnic groups on campus. Some foreign students study only in Mandarin with Chinese students but most of the foreign students select international business school undergraduate program which is taught in English and can take Chinese language courses. More than 70 years, over 90,000 people have graduated from the Beijing Foreign Studies University.