The origin of the School of Foreign Studies of China University of Petroleum (East China) can be traced back to the Russian Teaching and Research Group of Beijing Institute of Petroleum which was founded in 1953. In May 1989, the Department of Foreign Languages was founded, and in May 2002, the School of Foreign Studies was founded. In May 2011, the School of Foreign Studies was incorporated into the College of Arts with the Department of Law, the Department of Chinese Language and the Department of Arts from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. The recently named School of Foreign Studies was founded in December 2019.
The School consists of five teaching departments, including: Department of English Language and Literature, Department of Russian Language and Literature, Department of English for General Purposes, Department of English for Academic Purposes, and Department of Teaching Foreign Languages for Graduate Students. The administrative and service institutions of the School include General Office, Student Affairs Office, Graduate Teaching and Administration Department, International Affairs Office, Experiment and Service Center.
The School was authorized as a MA granting institution in English Language and Literature in 2000 and was approved as an institution granting degree of Master of Translation and Interpreting (including English Translation, English Interpreting and Russian Translation) in 2010. In 2011, the School was authorized as a first-level discipline MA institution granting Master’s Degree for Foreign Languages and Literatures in four majors, including Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in Foreign Languages, Translation Studies, Foreign Literature, International Energy Discourse and Crisis Management of Public Opinion.
The School now has two undergraduate majors in English and Russian, and teaches a total of 8 foreign languages, including Japanese, French, German, Korean, Arabic and Spanish. Courses of the less commonly taught languages are offered as Second Language Courses and Elective Courses.
Our School now has 139 faculty members, including 126 full-time teachers. There are 13 professors, 41 associate professors, and 12 foreign teachers from America, Australia, Russia, etc. We have 1 Provincial Excellent Teaching Team, 1 Provincial High-Level Talent, 1 Provincial New Century Excellent Talent, 2 Provincial Renowned Teachers, 1 Municipal Renowned Teacher, 1 District-Level Top-Notch Talent, and 4 District-Level Young Elite Talents. Our School has formed distinct characteristics and advantages in College English teaching and reform, English and Russian personnel training, and is honored as the birthplace of CET4 and CET6. The School has won the second prize of “National Outstanding Teaching Achievement” twice, the Grand Prize of “Provincial and Ministerial-level Outstanding Teaching Achievement” once and the first prize of “Provincial and Ministerial-level Outstanding Teaching Achievement” 6 times. College English and English Intensive Reading are listed in the Provincial Quality Courses. In 2011, China University of Petroleum (East China) was selected as the demonstration spot for College English Teaching Reform of the Ministry of Education.
Over the past five years, the School has undertaken 4 National Social Science Fund Projects, 9 Provincial and Ministerial-Level Projects, and more than 30 projects at departmental or bureau level. Also, we have won 2 First Prizes in Provincial Outstanding Teaching Achievement, 2 Provincial Social Science Outstanding Achievements. We have published 23 monographs, compilations and translation works, as well as over 50 high-level research papers in SSCI, A&HCI and CSSCI. Our Foreign Languages and Literature Discipline ranked C+ in the fourth National Discipline Evaluation. In 2019, our English Major was admitted to the Provincial First-Class Undergraduate Discipline Construction Program.
The School now holds 709 students (among which 225 are graduate students) and 20 undergraduate classes. We adhere to training talents with interdisciplinary and multi-lingual competence, maintaining small class sizes and teaching students according to their aptitude. Our undergraduate students majoring in English and Russian have excellent performance in TEM4, TEM8, ТРЯ4 and ТРЯ8, with the passing rate more than 20% higher than the national average. The graduate employment rate remains at above 80% and the enrollment rate of postgraduate programs is more than 30%. Some graduate students have been admitted into doctorate programs at top universities such as Beijing Normal University, Nankai University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, and Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, etc.
Our School upholds open education. We have established partnerships with more than 40 universities in Russia, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and many Central Asian countries and conducted collaborative training in the modes of“3+1”, “2+2”, “4+X”. So far, more than 400 students have participated in overseas education programs.
Our School is equipped with advanced teaching and scientific research facilities, including a Multi-functional Linguistic Laboratory, Simultaneous Interpretation Laboratory, Computer Aided Translation Laboratory, Multi-modal Linguistic Laboratory and Smart Education Platform. We have also collaborated with more than 13 units to establish Educational and Practical Bases, including Qingdao Huanghai University, BERIS Engineering and Research Corporation, Qingdao China-SCO Economic and Trade Demonstration Area. In 2019, we have signed a contract with the National Research University Belgorod State University in Russia to build a Joint Training Base, providing graduate students with a platform for further development.
Our School is also making the fullest use of every opportunity to enhance the capabilities of our students and faculty by sticking to the society-oriented training goal. We are qualified as Test Site for National Legal English Certificate (LEC), Talent Training Base for China Language Assessment, English Test for International Communication (ETIC) Center, Educational and Test Base for China Legal English, and Experiment, Education and Service Center. In the past few years, we have undertaken a series of training programs like Business English Training for Engineers and Managers from China National Offshore Oil, English Training for Shengli Oil Field Exploration and Development Research Institute, English Training for CNPC EastChina Design Institute Co., ltd.. In addition, our School has formed upTeams for Foreign-Aid Projects to serve the local economy. During the Qingdao SCO Summit in 2018, more than 100 of our students and faculty have participated in a series of services including organizing, translating and volunteer work, which received plenty of compliments from the Summit attendees. In 2019, our teams have undertaken more than 100 interpretations and translated more than 3 million words.
Our School has also won many honorary titles such as, “Provincial Advanced Primary Party Organization”, “Youth Star of China National Petroleum Corporation”, “March 8th Woman Red-Banner Pace-setter Collective of Shandong Universities”and “Provincial Education Labor Union Female Workers’ Contribution Work Post”. In 2019, the School Party Committee was enlisted on the University’s Construction List of “Double Creation” Primary Party Building Model Department. In August 2020, the National Universities Party Lectures covered the stories of teachers from our School that contributed to the world anti-epidemic combat by sharing Chinese experience through translation, which was aired on major platforms such as Guangming Online, Xinhua.net, Xuexi.cn, National University Ideological & Political Work Net, CCTV.
(Statistics until September 2020)
