College of Foreign Languages of USST features humanities and social sciences, and boasts an academic tradition of integrating arts, sciences and engineering studies. Mission and goal of the college are to summon teachers, students and alumni to fulfill individual pursuits and China dream as a whole, through cultivating globalized and innovative talents with excellent multilingual communication abilities and major-related core academic competencies, and conducting high-ranking social sciences studies involving linguistic and cultural areas at home and abroad, so that exchange of brilliant cultural elements between China and foreign countries, and harmonious development of society can be achieved.
Our college derives from Department of Foreign Languages for Science and Technology of Shanghai Institute of Mechanical Engineering. It began to enroll undergraduate students in majors of English for Science and Technology and German for Science and Technology in 1979, thus becoming one of the country’s earliest universities and colleges that establish majors of foreign languages for science and technology. From 1984 on, it started to admit postgraduate students in English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The college combines characteristics of foreign language subjects and an academic background of a university for science and technology, to embark on a path of distinctive development, and it is now pioneering all over the country in teaching and research of foreign languages for science and technology with about 7,000 students graduated from the college.
The college offers various General English and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses for USST students, trains professional talents of foreign languages, conducts academic research in language-related areas, and holds the function of social services. Currently, there are four undergraduate majors: English (Translation for Science and Technology), English (Sino-US Joint Program), German, and Japanese.In 2020, the English major, including English (Translation for Science and Technology) and English (Sino-US Joint Program), has been accredited as the First-class Major of Shanghai. In 2022, our college has been awarded the QS Five Stars in Program Strength category audit for the English major, which marks the first undergraduate major to win this honor in China.As for post-graduate education, the college offers a program for the First-Level Discipline of Foreign Languages and Literatures and a Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI) program. There are five teaching departments, namely Teaching and Research Centre of Public English, Department of English (Translation for Science and Technology), Department of English (Sino-US Joint Program), Department of German, and Department of Japanese, and five research institutes, namely Institute of Linguistics, Institute of Translation Studies, Institute of Literary and Cultural Studies, Institute of Area Studies and MTI Education Centre. The college offers various characteristic and core courses, among which “A General Introduction to German-speaking Countries”, “Academic English Listening and Speaking” and “Comprehensive English” are approved as First-class Courses of Shanghai. In addition, the college has 16 high-quality and key courses of Shanghai such as “Technical English Interpretation”, “Comprehensive German” and “Selected Readings of Japanese Literature”, etc.
The college currently has 188 members of staff, including 170 full-time teaching faculty members, among whom 13 are professors, 45 are associate professors, 89 are with a PhD degree. Also, 6 foreign teachers work jointly with the faculty to deliver courses to the students majoring in English, German, and Japanese, while each year, about 10 foreign teachers carry out short-term teaching projects in the college.
The college has established extensive cooperative relations with both domestic and foreign universities, research institutes, and publishing houses, and serves as the main research department of Shanghai Institute of Public Diplomacy (SIPD) jointly established by USST and Shanghai Public Diplomacy Association (SPDA), while it also occupies the position of the secretary- general of the Committee of Universities of Science and Technology (CUST) of China University Alliance for the Development of Foreign Language and Literature Discipline (CUAFLL).
