School of International Studies

As one of the first of its kind in Zhejiang Province and the leading body of both the Zhejiang Association of Foreign Languages and Literatures and the Hangzhou International Studies Association, the School of International Studies (SIS) of Hangzhou Normal University (HNU) established its first undergraduate program in 1978 and postgraduate program in 2002. . SIS currently consists of five academic departments: English, Translation and Interpreting, Japanese, Korean and College English, running overall five undergraduate programs, respectively English Language, English Language Pedagogy, Translation, Japanese Language and Korean Language. The School is authorized to confer master’s degrees in Category I discipline of “Foreign Languages and Literatures” which is rated Class A and funded by the provincial “First-class Discipline Construction Plan”. It also offers five such master’s degree under programs of Category II, namely

· English Language and Literature

· Japanese Language and Literature

· Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

· Comparative Literature and Cross-cultural Studies

· Discourse and Communication

Plus, the Master of Translation and Interpreting. The English Language major in both under- and postgraduate program was the first of its kind to pass the national professional accreditation of teacher education in Zhejiang province is rated as a “Zhejiang Provincial Preponderant Specialty” and earns “National First-class Graduate Specialty Construction Points”. In addition, its undergraduate Japanese Language program is funded under the title of “Hangzhou Municipal Key Specialty”.

The School boasts a competent faculty of 143 members, with 29 professors, 46 associate professors, 62 PhD. holders and 7 PhD. tutors. What is more, one professor is honored as the Distinguished Professor of the Chang Jiang Scholars Program while three faculty members are listed on Zhejiang 151 Talents Project, and other ten are listed on the Hangzhou New Century 131 Project for Young and Middle-aged Talents. In addition, seven faculty members are appointed as chair professors of the Scholar of Qiantang River and the Jack Ma Funds. There are some foreign teachers working full-time. The faculty also offers other courses, such as College English for all non-foreign language majors in the university, and provides classes in teaching German, Korean, Japanese and French to choose from. There are currently 1258 undergraduates and 222 postgraduates at SIS.

The School has made persistent efforts into discipline construction and academic research, thus creating a positive and favorable academic ambiance which has yielded abundant academic achievements. It boasts 10 research centers and institutes, namely the Institute of British and American Literature, the Institute of Translation Studies, the Institute of Contemporary Linguistics, the Institute of Applied Linguistics, the Institute of Japanese Studies, the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Discourse Studies, the Center for Intercultural Studies (encompassing the Center for Mu Xin Studies), the Institute of Korean Studies, the Center for Foreign Literature and Community Studies, and the Research Center for Foreign Languages for Cross-border E-commerce.

In recent years, the School’s academic teams have headed 29 research projects supported by National Social Sciences Fund, including two major bidding ones and four key ones. One major bidding project, A Study of English Literary Classics in the Midst of Changes in the Idea of Culture, chaired by Professor Ying Qiping, is the first of its kind for literary studies in the research area of foreign language and literature in Zhejiang Province. In addition, the teams have successfully obtained more than 40 ministerial and provincial-level research projects, winning five prizes ( four second prizes) of the Ministry of Education’s Award for Outstanding Scientific Research Achievements of Higher Education Institutions, as well as over 20 awards at or beyond the municipal and provincial levels. Apart from 130-plus monographs and textbooks, SIS faculty members have published at least 240 papers in SSCI/A&HCI/CSSCI journals, including over 160 printed in leading journals, such as the Foreign Literature Review, Foreign Literature Studies, Foreign Language Teaching and Research, the Journal of Foreign Languages and the Chinese Translators Journal.

The School attaches considerable importance to the quality of undergraduate education, recruiting and classifying students under the Category I discipline of “Foreign Languages and Literatures”, and paying attention to the interdisciplinarity of courses as well as the hierarchy of the curriculum. This is in line with fundamental courses that help students to lay a solid foundation of language knowledge and skills; courses in disciplinary specialization to broaden their knowledge and expand their literary and cultural visions, courses in self-directed development to give practical and theoretical guidance for their post-graduate study or career planning; and the Sino-US Program to provide the “International Express” for students wishing to study abroad. As a result, our students, in recent years, have made tremendous achievements at various high-level language competitions, including the “FLTRP Cup” National English Public Speaking Contest, the “21st Century Cup” National English Speaking Competition, the “China Cup”National Japanese Speech Contest, the “CASIO Cup” Japanese Speech Contest, the National College Students Korean Speaking Competition, the Zhejiang Provincial “Mitsui Cup” Japanese Writing Contest and the like. Besides, every year there is a group of graduates admitted to MA programs by such prestigious universities as the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Tokyo, the University of Sydney, Seoul National University, the University of Hong Kong, Peking University, Fudan University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Shanghai International Studies University, Zhejiang University and other renowned universities at home and abroad.

To internationalize its educational programs, every year the School invites a number of internationally well-known scholars and experts to lecture on various topics. Meanwhile, the School has established educational communication and collaboration relationships with a large number of higher education institutions across the world, including The University of Cambridge (UK), The University of Pennsylvania (USA), The University of California Los Angeles (USA), California State University at Sacramento, the State University of New York at Oswego, the University of Maine at Farmington, Middle Tennessee State University, King George International College (Canada), The University of Queensland (Australia), Palacký University (CzechRepublic), Kumamoto University (Japan), Okayama University (Japan), Kindai University (Japan), Kyoto Women’s University (Japan), Kinjo Gakuin University (Japan), Musashino Gakuin University (Japan), Yamanashi Gakuin University (Japan), Kwassui Women's University (Japan), Chosun University (South Korea), Seowon University (South Korea). As a result, we provide our students with various international programs like “2+2” dual degree programs, preparatory programs for postgraduate studies, summer study-abroad programs, among others.

The School has also engaged in several projects of primary and secondary school teacher training at municipal, provincial and national levels, which has been highly popular with the trainees and recognized by the Education Department. The college has also called on teachers and students to participate in the preparatory work for the Asian Games set to be held in Hangzhou in 2022, as well as in high-level sports events and international conference services such as the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, the China International Import Expo, the World Internet Conference and the Hangzhou Yunxi Conference, for which the college has earned a high reputation. For many years, the college has undertaken translation work on the web portal of the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government and the maintenance of its foreign language version, actively participated in the internationalization and development of Hangzhou, undertaken a number of research topics on urbanization and internationalization, so as to make suggestions for the global development of Hangzhou.

The School’s student affairs team, upholding a 4S working concept that values “openness, justice, flexibility and determination”, spares no effort to provide guidance and service to students’ all-round development. The team has received many awards such as Zhejiang’s May 1st Women’s Pacesetter, Zhejiang’s May 4th Red Banner Youth League Committee, Zhejiang’s Distinguished Youth League Committee, and Hangzhou’s March 8th Red Banner Team. More importantly, has been a primary reason for a large number of student awards both collectively and individually. For example, the Youth League Branch of English 088 has been awarded National May Fourth Youth League Branch status, and the branches of English 167 and Japanese 162 are on the list of Zhejiang’s Top Thousand Youth League Branches. Individually, many students have won first prizes in Zhejiang’s Career Planning Competition and their first prizes in Zhejiang’s “Challenge Cup” College Students’ Extracurricular Academic and Scientific Project Competition. Other than that, the team has also won a third prize in National Excellent Internet Publicity Works for Moral Education, along with countless individual honors, including Distinguished China’s Youth Volunteer, Zhejiang’s Distinguished Counselor with Excellent Performance in Career Service; ”Two Plans” (namely plans for student to serve in China’s western region and Zhejiang’s less developed regions) ; Summer Vacation Internship; Student Club; Youth League Information Service; G20 Hangzhou Summit; World Internet Conference; Hangzhou’s Distinguished Youth League leader; Top ten Communist Party Branch Secretary and Distinguished Communist Party Member. Academically, three projects have been granted provincial and ministerial-level funding and a number of papers have been published in core journals.

Insisting on the motto of “Aiming high and cultivating virtue in integrating Chinese and foreign learning cross-culturally”, the School has so far contributed thousands of talents to staff various fields of education, foreign affairs, culture, business and tourism and so on. Many of them are now distinguished figures in their careers such as Jack Ma (founder of Alibaba), Zhang Xian (president of Songcheng Group), Qiu Feng (winner of “National Outstanding Teachers”, “Zhejiang Distinguished Teachers”), and travel artist Xu Zonghui. Proudly, they have formed an alumni association of the School.