Jilin International Studies University

Jilin International Studies University is a key university in Jilin Province. Founded in 1995, it was approved by the Ministry of Education as a private regular undergraduate higher education institution in 2003. It gained bachelor’s degree authorization and began jointly admitting master’s students in 2005. In 2006, all university assets were donated to society through legal notarization. In 2007, it became China’s first, and currently only, private institution designated a provincial key university. With State Council approval in 2010, it became the country’s only pilot institution for “exploring a nonprofit private university model” under national education system reform. In 2011, the State Council Academic Degrees Committee approved it among the first private pilot institutions to train professional degree postgraduate students, in translation and interpreting. In 2015, it became China’s first private university to establish a Confucius Institute in the United States. In 2016, it became the only private university included in the national Basic Capacity Building Project for Universities in Central and Western China. In 2017, it became the only private university qualified to admit Chinese Government Scholarship students, successfully passed the Ministry of Education’s audit evaluation and was approved by the Jilin Academic Degrees Committee as an institution developing toward doctoral degree authorization. In 2018, the State Council Academic Degrees Committee approved its master’s degree authorization, and the Ministry of Education approved its current name. In 2020, it was selected for Category A of Jilin’s Distinctive High-Level Applied University Development initiative. In 2022, it was selected as a Category A institution developing toward doctoral degree authorization in Jilin. In 2024, the Jilin Academic Degrees Committee designated it a cultivation institution under the doctoral degree “A+” Plan for 2024-2026. In 2025, the Central Commission for Guiding Cultural and Ethical Progress awarded it National Civilized Campus status.

It has become an important base in Jilin and northeastern China for training high-quality applied professionals in foreign languages and international affairs, a cradle of “Multilingual Translation+” talent in Jilin, a national demonstration base for private higher education system reform and a center for integrated multicultural education.

Located in Changchun’s scenic Jingyuetan tourism area, it covers 703000 square meters, with 346800 square meters of buildings. Natural surroundings of hills and water blend with architecture combining Chinese and Western styles, emphasizing harmony between the environment and humanities in a modern garden-style campus.

It has 13302 students, including 11789 undergraduates, 1482 postgraduate students and over 300 international students. It has over 1000 faculty and staff, including 65 foreign teachers from countries including the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Egypt, Iran, Indonesia, Thailand, Mongolia, Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia and Ukraine.

Its 14 teaching units are the schools of Advanced Translation and Interpreting, English, Eastern Languages, Western Languages, Central and Eastern European Languages, International Business, International Communication, Education, International Arts, International Culture and Tourism (International Ice and Snow School), Artificial Intelligence, Marxism and International Relations, and the Physical Education Department. It offers 21 foreign languages: English, Japanese, German, French, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Mongolian, Indonesian, Persian, Polish, Czech, Thai, Serbian, Hungarian, Greek, Ukrainian and Malay. It has 9 professional master’s authorizations—in translation and interpreting, education, international Chinese language education, international business, accounting, tourism management, business administration, publishing and finance—and 3 first-level academic master’s authorizations in education, foreign languages and literature, and Marxist theory. These cover 45 professional fields and 5 categories: literature, economics, management, education and law. Its Master of Translation and Interpreting covers 9 languages: English, Japanese, Russian, Korean, German, French, Spanish, Arabic and Italian. Its 49 undergraduate programs span 21 foreign languages and 7 categories: literature, economics, management, education, arts, law and engineering. It uses training models including “foreign language + professional subject,” “professional subject + foreign language,” “two foreign languages” and “less commonly taught language + English + professional subject.” Its applied “Multilingual Translation+” system has made it a cradle of this talent in Jilin.

It has 1 national distinctive program, 1 national comprehensive reform pilot program, 6 national first-class undergraduate program development sites, 1 national experimental teaching demonstration center, Global Village, 1 national off-campus practical education base for university students, 1 China Scholarship Council “Experience China” practice base, 1 National Teaching Achievement Award, 8 national first-class courses, 1 national quality course, 2 China Scholarship Council “Experience China” micro-courses and 1 Ministry of Education country and regional studies center. Provincial resources include 13 first-class undergraduate programs, 3 Jilin transformation and development demonstration program clusters, 6 Jilin branded programs, 8 distinctive programs under the 12th Five-Year Plan, 5 distinctive high-level programs under the 13th Five-Year Plan and 5 Jilin distinctive high-level program cluster development projects. Programs designated distinctive at provincial level or above account for one-third of all programs. It has 24 provincial first-class courses, 19 provincial quality courses, 31 provincial outstanding courses, 1 provincial model course for education through disciplines, 15 provincial model courses integrating ideological and political education and 17 provincial exemplary or outstanding cases of ideological and political education in courses.

It has 2 provincial high-level strong distinctive disciplines and 17 provincial research platforms, including a collaborative innovation center for major provincial needs, a distinctive new university think tank, a key humanities and social science research base, a higher education research base and a university philosophy and social science laboratory. It has 4 provincial model distinctive schools, 1 provincial innovation and entrepreneurship demonstration base, 4 provincial experimental zones for innovative training models, 2 cultivation projects for customized classes training urgently needed talent, 1 provincial program development project under Excellent Engineer Education and Training Program 2.0, 5 provincial experimental teaching demonstration centers and 6 provincial off-campus practical bases.

Its personnel include 4 State Council special allowance recipients, 1 national education inspector, 1 member of the National Higher Education Institution Establishment Review Committee, 2 members of the Ministry of Education’s expert committee for regular undergraduate educational evaluation and 12 members of its Teaching Advisory Committee for Foreign-Language Programs. Fifteen people serve on Jilin regular undergraduate program teaching advisory committees for 2021-2025 or the province’s New Liberal Arts development expert working group for 2021-2025. It has 2 provincial senior experts, 11 provincial young and middle-aged professional and technical talents with outstanding contributions, 15 provincial top innovative talent project selectees, 43 doctoral supervisors, 1 National Outstanding Teacher, 4 provincial or ministerial outstanding teachers, 7 provincial distinguished teachers, 10 provincial outstanding teaching teams and 3 provincial university Huang Danian-style teaching teams.

The university actively promotes international education. It works with over 200 universities and educational institutions in more than 40 countries and regions on overseas programs such as dual bachelor’s degrees, continuous undergraduate-master’s study and dual master’s degrees. It has approval for 5 Ministry of Education Sino-foreign cooperative programs: finance with New Jersey City University in the United States; German with a translation specialization with the University of Applied Languages in Munich, Germany; Spanish with a business management specialization with the Technical University of Cartagena in Spain; Russian with an education specialization with Tomsk State Pedagogical University in Russia; and Korean with an education specialization with Busan University of Foreign Studies in South Korea. It is qualified to admit recipients of the Chinese Government Scholarship, Jilin Provincial Government Scholarship for International Students and International Chinese Language Teachers Scholarship. With Saint Peter’s University in the United States, it jointly established the country’s first Local Chinese Language Teacher Education and Training Center. With the Ministry of Education’s Center for Language Education and Cooperation and the Chinese Language Teachers Association of New Jersey, it jointly develops the New Jersey Primary and Secondary School Chinese Education Project. It has joined 11 international university alliances, including the Global Alliance of Foreign Studies Universities, China-Belarus University Alliance, China-Arab Universities Alliance, University Alliance of the Silk Road, Association of Universities of Northeastern China and Russia’s Far East and Siberia, China-Africa Universities Alliance, China-Central and Eastern European Countries Higher Education Institutions Consortium, Sino-Russian Language Universities Alliance, and China-ASEAN Thousand Schools Hand-in-Hand Plan. Its 10 international joint research platforms include a Russia Research Center with Tomsk State Pedagogical University, Belarus Research Center with Minsk State Linguistic University, Japanese Language and Culture Research Center with Hokuriku University, and Korean Language and Culture Research Center with Busan University of Foreign Studies. It receives approximately 300 international students annually. Over 800 students each year travel overseas for dual undergraduate degrees, continuous undergraduate-master’s programs, and long- or short-term language and cultural exchanges. In some programs, 100% of students go abroad.

The university has advanced, comprehensive equipment. Its large integrated language and culture practical teaching base, Global Village, was designated a national experimental teaching demonstration center by the Ministry of Education in 2013 and named a World Multicultural Education Center by UNESCO. Its experimental and practical training center for non-language programs covers 14200 square meters, with 1950 workstations and provincial experimental teaching demonstration centers in economics, business administration, computers and office automation, and mental health. Serving teachers and students across the university, it offers 245 non-language practical courses supporting 49 programs and trains an annual average of 20192 student participants. Its international innovation and entrepreneurship education base, Shiqiao Building, provides an integrated matrix of diverse spaces for students’ innovation, entrepreneurship and development.

Facilities include simultaneous interpreting laboratories, computer-assisted translation laboratories, digital language laboratories, digital recording studios, smart classrooms, professional simulation laboratories, smart office laboratories, basic artificial intelligence application laboratories, digital-intelligence finance and taxation collaborative education laboratories, integrated publishing laboratories, digital art creation laboratories, tea and beverage training rooms, moot court training rooms, multimedia classrooms and multifunctional lecture halls, along with synthetic sports grounds, a gymnasium and an indoor swimming pool.

The library covers 20000 square meters and has over 3000 reading seats, opening 355 days a year. It combines collections, study and reading, exchanges and discussion, research and cultural leisure in an open library integrating modern, digital, ecological and international elements. It has first-class service facilities and a Wi-Fi-covered network, with 1.23 million Chinese and foreign-language printed books, 2.4 million e-book titles, 772000 electronic journal volumes and 46 Chinese and foreign-language databases. These extensive resources strongly support teaching, research, discipline development and talent cultivation.

Since its founding, the university has consistently prioritized social benefit and a public-interest educational path. It was the first private university in China to firmly advocate public-interest education without personal financial returns, and the first and currently only private university to legally notarize its property arrangements.

It follows the philosophy of “doing everything for students’ growth, talent development and success, making Jilin International Studies University a bridge for Chinese people to develop and enter the world and a bridge connecting Chinese and foreign cultures,” and an educational principle of “student-centered, maximally responsible education.” It works to offer the most serious, responsible and best education. It states that its education must be worthy of “parents’ trust, students’ time, society’s attention and educators’ conscience.” It is market-oriented, highlights distinctive strengths, strengthens internal capability and management, pursues quality education and builds its brand. It practices a three-part concept of development in “knowledge, ability and character,” building moral foundations, strengthening intellectual learning, improving physical health, cultivating aesthetic sensibility and developing character through work. These form an integrated system of moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic and practical education.

The university has always emphasized Party building and ideological and political work. From the strategic perspective of educating people for the Party and cultivating talent for the country, it places fostering virtue and educating people at the center as its fundamental task, integrating it into every aspect of development and the entire training process. Upholding the principle of “learning foreign languages well, being good Chinese citizens and telling China’s stories well,” it has built an ideological and political system of “one core, two wings, six dimensions and six integrations.” It promotes a multilingual “three integrations” pilot for Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, was approved among the province’s second group of key Schools of Marxism and established the first first-level master’s authorization in Marxist theory at a private university in China. It embeds its public-interest spirit throughout practical education. It was among the earliest institutions nationally to establish a School of Volunteer Service Management, jointly develops a training base with the China Volunteer Service Federation, and established the Jilin Incubation Base for China Volunteer Service Projects with the Volunteer Service Promotion Center of the Central Social Work Department. Student volunteering has become a recognized educational brand. It has received 1 Ministry of Education quality project for university ideological and political education, and the ministry’s university ideological and political work website has reported its exemplary practices 4 times. It is a provincial model university for Party building and a Jilin social organization Party-building innovation demonstration base. Its outstanding students include recipients of titles such as National Top Ten Farmers and National Young Role Models for Positive and Kind Conduct.

The university has graduated over 40000 students. Graduates are widely welcomed by employers for good character, professional capabilities, dedication and overall quality. In recent years, graduate employment rates have remained among the leading Jilin universities while employment quality continues to improve. It received formal commendations from the provincial education department for four consecutive years and the title “One of the Top 50 National Universities with Exemplary Graduate Employment Practices.”

In recent years, national, provincial and ministerial leaders have shown close attention and high regard. Visitors who inspected and guided its work include Cai Dafeng, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and chairman of the China Association for Promoting Democracy; former NPC Standing Committee vice chairs Peng Peiyun, Gu Xiulian and Chen Zhili; former China Association for Promoting Democracy chair Yan Junqi and former vice chair Zhu Yongxin; Ministry of Education Party leadership group secretary and minister Huai Jinpeng; former education ministers Zhou Ji, Yuan Guiren and Chen Baosheng; Jilin Party secretary Huang Qiang and former secretary Bayanqolu; and former Jilin governor Han Jun. The Ministry of Education’s undergraduate teaching qualification evaluation experts described it as “a private university with vision, taste, aspiration and cultivation, full of optimism and determination, and a standard-bearer for private universities nationwide.” The ministry’s undergraduate teaching audit evaluation experts said it had “commitment, responsibility, contributions, high standards, distinctive strengths, a soul and hope, worthy of being a standard-bearer for Chinese private universities.” It ranked first in ShanghaiRanking’s Best Chinese Private Universities Ranking in every year from 2020 to 2025, achieving six consecutive titles.

The university upholds its political character, consistently fosters virtue and talent and works to be a socialist university. It strengthens its people-centered character, maintains nonprofit education and aims to become a distinguished institution lasting a century. It highlights its strategic character, maintains an applied orientation and aims to be a foreign studies university with distinctive strengths. It pursues quality education to become a high-level university and maintains openness to become an international university. It is now concentrating on a second phase of development and building six centers of excellence, advancing toward a high-level foreign studies university that is quality-focused, nonprofit, applied, international and distinctive. It will gradually develop more democratic, law-based and international governance, ultimately becoming a distinguished century-old university.