The School of International Studies (SIS) of Zhejiang University (ZJU) boasts an enduring history dating back to 1928. The year 1999 witnessed the merging of the Department of Foreign Languages of former Zhejiang University, the School of Foreign Languages, the Department of College English Teaching of Hangzhou University, the Department of Public English Teaching of Zhejiang Agricultural University, and the Teaching and Research Section of Foreign Languages of Zhejiang Medical University, into the School of Foreign Languages. It was renamed the School of International Studies in 2003.

In recent years, SIS has been continuously building up its global reputation and impact. Its primary discipline of Foreign Languages and Literature was ranked among the top 3% in the 5th round of University Evaluation of the Ministry of Education (MOE). In the QS World University Rankings for Linguistics 2025, ZJU was ranked 28th.

SIS consists of three departments: English Language and Literature, Linguistics and Translation Studies, and Asian and European Languages. It has eleven university-level research institutions, namely, the Institute of Foreign Literature, the Institute of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in Foreign Languages, the Institute of German Culture, the Institute of Translation Studies, the Institute of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, the Research Center for Language Development and Assessment, the Chinese Academy of Translation and Translation Studies, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies of World Literature, the Center for English Writing Teaching and Research, the Global Competency Center, the English Public Speaking Center. The faculty-level institutes and research platforms include the Institute of Russian Language and Culture, the Institute of French Language and Culture, the Institute of Japanese Language and Culture, the Institute of German Culture, the Institute of Spanish Language and Culture, the Center for Language-Behavior Patterns, the Language and Aging Center, the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the Language and Lifelong Development Lab, and the Zijin Club.

SIS boasts a highly qualified faculty and enjoys a strong reputation both domestically and internationally. The faculty includes 29 full professors, 44 associate professors, 14 “Hundred Talents Program” researchers, 5 specially appointed researchers, 44 doctoral supervisors, 83 master’s supervisors, and 6 postdoctoral researchers. There are also 16 foreign teachers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, Spain, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Lebanon.

SIS has a large number of esteemed teachers who are dedicated to teaching. The national-level College English teaching team is proactive and innovative, having won multiple major awards such as the National Prize of Teaching Achievement and the National Award for Textbook Development. The team is particularly renowned for its research, and the construction of digitally empowered English learning platforms.

SIS places great emphasis on talent cultivation and has achieved outstanding results. Currently, there are 1,180 students enrolled, including 757 undergraduate students, 257 master’s candidates, and 144 doctoral candidates, along with 22 international degree-seeking students (including 2 graduate students). All seven undergraduate programs – English, German, Translation, Russian, French, Spanish, and Japanese – have been selected as National First-Class Undergraduate Programs. Six courses, College English IV, English Interpretation, Learn Russian with Me (1) and Intensive Reading of English Literary Classics, Comprehensive Japanese, Introduction to Applied Linguistics, have been recognized as National First-Class Undergraduate Courses. Students have won numerous awards in national and international competitions.

SIS has achieved remarkable and steady progress in scientific research. Both the number and level of research projects rank among the top in China, with abundant academic outputs, particularly in terms of the total number and per capita publications in international journals. In 2020 and 2024, SIS won 10 Outstanding Achievement Awards for Scientific Research in Higher Education (Humanities and Social Sciences, Organized by the Ministry of Education), among which 2 first-prize awards. SIS also has two international journals: Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature and Forum for World Literature Studies.

The teaching and research support system of SIS is continuously improving, with advanced hardware facilities enabling fully digitalized and networked multimedia foreign language teaching. SIS is equipped with 1,202 digital networked computer terminals for students, 70 digital language and multimedia networked classrooms, one multilingual simultaneous interpretation laboratory, and one translation localization laboratory. Additional resources include an interactive multimedia real-time recording and broadcasting system, a video conferencing system, multimedia digital audio recording and editing equipment, eight Zhejiang University Foreign Language FM broadcasting stations, five closed-circuit systems for receiving international satellite TV (English, Russian, German, Japanese, and French), and over 10,000 hours of foreign language audio-visual materials.