Profile of College of Foreign Languages

 CFL dates back to 1965 when two undergraduate majors, English and French, were launched. In 1978 the Foreign Languages Department was founded, and it became a college in 2004. CFL has had an excellent development path in the past fifty years. There were only 45 students and over 10 teachers in the initial period. However, so far, it has a secondary doctoral program (Maritime Language and Application), a professional program of Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI), and a first level academic program ( English Language and Literature) composed of three secondary master disciplines as Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, English Language and Literature, as well as Japanese Language and Literature.

CFL consists of four undergraduate departments: English (for Shipping), Translation, Business English and Japanese, including more than 1,200 students and over 120 teachers. CFL has many institutes, including the Department of College English Teaching, Chinese Language and Culture Centre, Non-major Teaching Section, the Institute of Language and Culture, the Institute of Translation, the Institute of English-Chinese Contrastive Studies and Applications, the Institute of International Shipping (Business) English, the Institute of Language Policy and Planning,  the Institute of Contemporary Western Literary Theories, the Institute of Modern and Contemporary Britain and American Literature, TOEFL Exam Centre of the Ministry of Education, the Shanghai Intermediate and Advanced Interpretation Exam Centre, BEC Exam Centre, PCEC Training Department and Japanese Ability Proficiency Test Centre.

Abiding by the principle of strengthening the basic education and establishing characteristic disciplines, CFL keeps seeking innovation and development, making great progress in talent cultivation, discipline building, faculty team building, scientific research and foreign exchanges and cooperation. In 2005, Shanghai Education Committee evaluated the master’s degree disciplines of CFL and all of them were accredited as excellence. In October, 2006, the Ministry of Education made an all-directional evaluation on the teaching quality of the undergraduate English major and it was graded as excellence. In May, 2013, the Ministry of Education evaluated the English Language and Literature, a first-level discipline. Among 63 universities, our college ranked the fifth in terms of scientific research level and ranked the seventh in the aspect of the quality of talent cultivation. In November, 2013, the establishment of Maritime Language and Application was approved by the Ministry of Education. In 2005, the professional program of Master of Translation and Interpreting was evaluated by experts in the related field as an excellent discipline for its maritime features. In August, 2016, according to the XDF Koolearn Website, SMU ranked on China’s Top 10 in the grade ranking of College English Test for the average grade of CET-4 was 473.77 and 421.17 of CET-6.

CFL cooperates with the University of Portsmouth and students who participate in the “3+1”program can receive two bachelor’s degrees, and a cooperation program of PSE is provided. Besides, it has an undergraduate program and a“1+1” graduate program of University of Ottawa. It has a “3+2”program of Kent State University and a “2+2”program, a “3+1”program, and a six-month program of Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies. What’s more, students of CFL can participate in long-term or short-term programs of World Maritime University, University of Plymouth, University of Malta, and University of Western Australia.