Shanghai International Studies University, referred to as "shangwai", is the first higher foreign language institution established after the founding of new China. It is one of the birthplaces of foreign language education in New China. It is a national key university directly under the Ministry of education of the people's Republic of China and jointly built with Shanghai Municipal People's government. It has entered the national "211 Project" and "world-class discipline construction university"; it has been selected into the national public school of building high-level universities It is a founding member of the International Alliance for Asian African Studies, the Sino British Higher Education Humanities alliance, the Sino Russian Comprehensive University Alliance, and the Sino Japanese University Alliance for people to people exchanges. It is also a university signing the UN memorandum of cooperation and an international university The Asia Pacific working group of the Federation of translation colleges of universities (ciuti) is the only professional conference interpretation school in China ranking among the top 15 in the world, with English and Chinese ranking the first in the world.Its predecessor was Shanghai Russian school attached to East China People's revolutionary University. It was founded in December 1949. After the succession and transformation of the school of foreign languages attached to East China People's revolutionary University, Shanghai Russian school and Shanghai Institute of foreign languages, it was officially renamed Shanghai Foreign Studies University in 1994.As of December 2019, the university has two campuses, Hongkou and Songjiang, covering a total area of 74.7 hectares; it has 22 teaching departments (departments), 50 undergraduate majors, and 46 teaching languages; it has one national "double first-class" construction discipline, three national key disciplines (including one cultivation discipline); it has three post doctoral research mobile stations, three first-class discipline doctoral programs, and seven first-class discipline master programs There are 6798 undergraduates, 3645 postgraduates (including international students) and 4571 international students (including language advanced students).