Guangdong University of Foreign Studies

The Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (GDUFS) () is a leading public university with emphasis in foreign languages and cultures, overseas economy and trade, and international strategies in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. It has been selected as one of the national 2011 Program. GDUFS is the Chinese partner institution of the United Nations University Outreach Programme for the training of high-end translators, the founding member of the Conférence Internationale Permanente d'Instituts Universitaires de Traducteurs et Interprètes (CIUTI) and the International Federation of Translators (FIT). It is also an important base for the training of international talents and the international dissemination of foreign languages and literature, global economic governance and Chinese culture. The university is ranked 151-200 in linguistics and 251-300 in English Language and Literature by QS World University Rankings. Together with Beijing Foreign Studies University and Shanghai International Studies University, it is considered one of the top 3 universities in Linguistics in China. GDUFS is also one of the first universities to introduce a Cyber Security Major with a focus on Natural Language Processing (NLP) in China.

As of December 2022, the university has four campuses with a total area of 2,442 mu (including planning), 25 teaching units and one independent college (South China Business School), offering 68 undergraduate majors; 2,166 staff members, 1,380 full-time teachers; 20,421 full-time undergraduate students, 5,323 doctoral and master's degree students and 850 foreign students.

History

In March 1964, the Central South Bureau of the Central Government, and the Party Committee and the People's Government of Guangdong Province decided to set up a foreign languages institute to train  competent graduates to meet the demands of the increasing international exchanges. In November 1964, with the sanction of the Central Government, Guangzhou Foreign Languages Institute was established. In July 1965, it began to enroll 4-year bachelor's degree students and offered 4 specialties – English, German, French, and Spanish. It was located at the old site of Guangdong Petroleum School in the Northeast suburbs of Guangzhou.

Since January 1966, Guangzhou Foreign Languages Institute had been operating under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Higher Education of the Central People's Government. In October 1969, in accordance with the CPC Central Committee's Notice to Transfer the Institutions of Higher Education to the Revolutionary Committees, the institute was delegated to Guangdong Province's Cultural Revolutionary Committee.

In October 1970, Guangdong Provincial Revolutionary Committee restructured the institutions of higher education in Guangdong Province. As a result, Sun Yat-sen University Foreign Languages Department, Jinan University Foreign Languages and Foreign Trade Department, and Guanghzou Foreign Languages School were merged into Guangzhou Foreign Languages Institute. In the meantime, the institute was renamed as Guangdong Foreign Languages Institute and was then moved to the old site of Central South Forestry Institute in the Northern Suburbs of Guangzhou.

In November 1977, the school resumed the name of Guangzhou Foreign Languages Institute and again operated directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education.

In December 1980, with the approval of the State Council, Guangzhou Foreign Trade Institute was established in the northern suburbs of Guangzhou. The institute evolved from Guangdong Provincial Foreign Trade Cadres School, which was founded in 1957 and operated directly under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Provincial Foreign Trade Bureau. In 1960, on the basis of Guangdong Provincial Foreign Trade Cadres School, Guangdong Foreign Trade School was founded and began to matriculate excellent students from middle schools, who were required to fulfill five years studies. In 1961, Guangdong Provincial Foreign Trade School became attached to Guangdong Provincial Finance and Trade Cadres School. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Guangdong Provincial Foreign Trade School was suspended for a time and re-opened in 1973. In accordance with the decision by Guangdong provincial government, Guangzhou Foreign Languages Institute Foreign Trade Department was incorporated into Guangdong Provincial Foreign Trade School, which began to enroll three-year college students in 1978. Later, the newly founded Guangzhou Foreign Trade Institute offered foreign trade economy, foreign trade accounting, and other specialties, and the students enrolled were required to fulfill four years schooling. The institute operated under the joint jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Guangdong provincial government, with the former playing the dominant role.

In September 1994, Guangzhou Foreign Trade Institute was delegated to the jurisdiction of the People's Government of Guangdong Province by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. In January 1995, Guangzhou Foreign Languages Institute was transferred to Guangdong province by the State Education Commission. In May 1995, the two institutes merged. As a result, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies came into being.

In 2003, with the approval of the People's Government of Guangdong Province, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies joined the University Town program and officially started the construction of South Campus. In September 2004, the campus came into use and received its first batch of university students.

In October 2008, according to the decision by the People's Government of Guangdong Province, Guangdong Vocational College of Finance and Economics, which was established in April 1996, had been named Guangdong College of Finance and Tax Administration from April 1996 to July 2001 and was incorporated into Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

Campuses
The university, which consists of three campuses,  covers an area of 2292 mu. The north campus, located at the foot of the Baiyun Mountains, covers an area of 939 mu. The south campus, situated in the Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, covers an area of 1095 mu. And the Dalang campus, located in Dalang, covers an area of 258 mu.

The North Campus is in Baiyun District and the South Campus is in Panyu District.

Structure

Faculties 

Altogether, there are 19 schools of bachelor-degree education: Faculty of English Language and Culture, Faculty of Economics and Trade, Faculty of International Business English, Faculty of Finance, Faculty of Commerce, Faculty of Accountancy, Faculty of Western Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Eastern Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Chinese Language and Culture, School of Legal Studies, Faculty of English Education, School of Cisco Informatics, School of Political Science and Public Administration, School of Marxism, School of Interpreting and Translation Studies, School of Journalism and Communication, College of Art, Physical Education Department, and Center for Experimental Education.

Research Centers
The university has formed a comprehensive system consisting of nation-level, province-level, city-level, and school-level research bases. It has one key research base of humanities and social sciences under the auspices of the Ministry of Education — Center for the Research of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics; one research base of the contrastive studies of the other countries and regions with China under the auspices of the Ministry of Education — Center for Canadian Studies; four key research bases   of humanities and social sciences under the auspices of Guangdong Department of Education—Center for the Research of Foreign Literature and Culture, Center for the Research of International Economics and Trade, Center for Translation Studies, Center for the Research of Cantonese Merchants; one key research base of soft science under the auspices of Guangdong province's Department of Education; one important base for the research and assessment of local legislature and consultation service under the auspices of Guangdong Department of Education; one key research base of humanities and social sciences under the auspices of Guangzhou Bureau of Education — Center for the Research of Guangzhou as an International Business Hub; one key laboratory of philosophy and social sciences under the auspices of Guangdong Department of Education — Center for the Research of Language Engineering and Computation; one strategic think-tank under the auspices of Guangdong Department of Education — Guangdong Research Institute for International Strategies.

In 2000, the Center for the Research of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, whose predecessor was Research Institute of Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, was selected as the key research base of humanities and social sciences by the Ministry of Education.  The Center is dedicated to the research of second language acquisition, social and public discourses, and language ontology. Guangdong Institute for the Research of International Strategies, which was approved by the People's Government of Guangdong province in 2009, is a think-tank dedicated to the research on Guangdong's international strategies, particularly on China's participation in the governance of global economy, Guangdong's going global, the Maritime Silk Road, and the like.

In addition, the university has formed two province-level research centers— Center for Collaborative Innovation of Foreign Language Research and Services, and Center for Collaborative Innovation of Guangdong Going Global Strategies. The school has completed a host of state-level key research projects and team innovation projects under the auspices of the National Social Sciences Fund and the Ministry of Education, and won quite a few high-level awards for the scholars’ relevant outstanding academic achievements. Also, the school publishes Modern Foreign Languages (core journal), International Economics and Trade Research (core journal), Journal of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Journal of Strategy and Decision Making, and the like. Besides, it has set up more than 10 university-level research institutes, such as Research Institute of International Service Outsourcing.

Library

Printed resources 
By the statistical figures given in August 2014, the library boasts 2,894,000 copies of books in 20 languages in total. To be specific, there are 501,000 kinds and 20,840,000 copies of Chinese books; 130,000 kinds and 496,000 copies of English originals; 71,000 kinds and 179,000 copies of non-English originals; 1659 kinds and 2167 copies of Chinese and foreign journals; 135,000 copies of bound volume of back numbers. The library enjoys an abundance of foreign books and journals, which make the library, stand out from the other libraries across the universities.

Electronic resources 
The library boasts 1,780,000 kinds (copies) of Chinese and foreign electronic books, including 1,700,000 kinds of Chinese books and 80,000 kinds of foreign books. It has subscribed 85 kinds of electronic database, including 42 kinds of Chinese database and 43 kinds of foreign database. Besides, it provides 18 kinds of network database that can be openly accessed and 20 kinds of database specially created for certain disciplines and specialties. It has 5769 kinds of electronic Chinese journals and 40,750 kinds of electronic foreign journals and 67,000 kinds of electronic books. The databases created by the university include: Center for the Research of Guangdong's Literature Resources, Chaoxing Electronic Books Service, Linguistics and Applied Linguistics Research Database, Foreign Literature and Cultural Research Database, GDUFS Academic Archiving System Database, Liang Zongdai's Works and Relevant Research Database.

Special collections 
The Center for Research of Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics houses books and journals that cannot be taken out of the reading room.

The Liang Zongdai Library houses all the books that the renowned poet-cum-scholar-cum-translator collected, his monographs, and his relevant research materials, including the books autographed by the French writers Ambroise-Paul-Toussaint-Jules Valéry and Romain Rolland.

The Center for Research of Business English collects and displays the English classics of economy, business, and management, the latest relevant works, the related core journals, and the relevant database.

The Center for Research of Guangdong's Literature Resources is the result of the cooperation of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies with Southern Publishing & Media Co. Ltd. It collects literature resources related to Guangdong's politics, economy, culture, society, and relevant electronic resources.

The Room for the Teachers' Works collects almost 2,000 representative works written by the teachers of the university.

The Room for Prized Works houses classics such as the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, compiled in 1772-1782 at the order of the Qianlong Emperor, and voluminous English dictionaries.

The Digital Library contains a world of electronic books, electronic journals, audiovisual and picture resources, conference papers, theses, dissertations, statistical data, and test questions databases. It provides a host of databases: such as CNKI, Du Xiu Knowledge Bank, Chao Xing Renowned Professors’ Rostrum, China Economic Statistics Database, the State Council's Information Network of Development Research Center, China Law Resources Database, MyiLibrary, Taylor & Francis SSH, Web of Knowledge SSCI, CUP (Cambridge University Press), OUP (Oxford University Press), Wiley-Blackwell, Elsevier ScienceDirect, EBSCO, Proquest, HeinOnline, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), PressDisplay (multi-language newspapers databank).

Laboratories
The floor space of the laboratories totals more than 55,000 square meters. In recent years, the investment in the facilities has been on the increase. In 2013-2014, the money that went to upgrade the laboratories amounted to 10,188,600 yuan; 726 articles of instruments were purchased. Now the university boasts 122 teaching laboratories, including eight provincial-level teaching demonstration centers— Digital Language Teaching Demonstration Center, Digital Simultaneous Interpreting Experimental Center, Broadband Multimedia Experimental Center, International Economy and Management Demonstration Center, Legal Studies Experimental Teaching Center, Digital Media & Art Teaching Demonstration Center, Computer Network Technology Teaching Center, and Computer Experimental Teaching Center.

References 

Universities and colleges in Guangzhou
Translation and interpreting schools
Language education in China
Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center
Educational institutions established in 1995
1965 establishments in China