The School of Foreign Languages of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (ZUEL) was approved to offer master’s degree of Applied Linguistics in 2003 and the enrollment began in 2004. Over the past decade, the postgraduate education has developed rapidly. We offer Master’s degrees in one first-tier discipline, namely, Foreign Languages and Literature, and two second-tier disciplines, namely, English Language and Literature and Japanese Language and Literature since 2010. In the same year, the launching of Master of Translation and Interpretation (MTI) was approved by the Ministry of Education.
The program benefits from an outstanding and diverse faculty with full commitment, broad horizon and strong research capabilities. At present, there are 26 full-time supervisors, of whom 22 are Ph.D. holders or Ph.D. candidates, 7 are professors and 19 are associate professors. The average age of the supervisors is 40. The big majority of the supervisors have international education background. Over the past five years, fruitful research results have been achieved by the faculty members, including 1 National Social Science Fund project, 7 projects supported by the Humanities and Social Science Fund of the Ministry of Education, over 50 articles published in CSSCI journals and overseas academic journals, and over 10 academic works. The program has been further enhanced by the participation of a number of renowned scholars from both home and abroad in class teaching. In addition, a system of “Dual-Supervision” has been adopted for MTI education. In order to guarantee quality education, each MTI student is instructed by two supervisors, one on-campus faculty member and one off-campus professional with years of translation experience.
Each of the 4 master’s majors has its own strengths and characteristics. Master in Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics highlights multi-language information processing, investigates industry-university collaboration and trains R&D professionals. Master in English Language and Literature stresses research on foreign drama, English literature and culture, and western literary theories and criticism, and it trains research professionals. Master in Japanese Language and Literature focuses on the integration of economy, management and law, and it trains multidisciplinary professionals. The focus of MTI rests in business translation and legal translation.
Academic exchanges play a key role in postgraduate education. Each year a host of eminent experts and scholars from both home and abroad are invited to deliver courses or lectures. We have established international academic exchanges and educational partnership with EduFrance, Saint Mary's University of Canada, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and American International Education Foundation among other institutes of higher education.
In order to encourage and support academic research, we have sponsored a wide range of activities including the Fourteenth National Symposium on American Drama, the International Symposium on Coetzee and Post-colonial Literature, the International Symposium on Study and Application of Cross-cultural Communication, the National Business English Seminar (sub-forum for Central and Southern China), and the Mainland - Hong Kong Translation Practicum.
The School of Foreign Languages is well equipped with nearly 30 independent multimedia classrooms, 3 simultaneous interpreting laboratories, a specialized library and other up-to-date facilities such as recording studios, video archives, self-learning center and language practice center. The library has a collection of over of 11,000 volumes of books and about 80 academic journals in a range of foreign languages including English, Japanese, German and Russian.
Over the recent years, there has witnessed a trend of diversification of students’ background, a stable increase in the number of degree applicants and a consecutive 100% employment rate of the graduates from the program. The majority of the graduates work in foreign languages, trade or law related posts and some graduates continue to pursue further education overseas.
The faculty and the staff are dedicated to further strengthening our postgraduate education with a view to turn the School of Foreign Languages into a cradle for top professionals with international perspective and multidisciplinary background who can make important contribution to the development of social and economic causes in the society.
