Jilin International Studies University（JISU）is a key university in Jilin Province. Founded in 1995, it was approved by the Ministry of Education as a private general undergraduate institution in 2003. In 2005, it obtained the authority to confer bachelor degrees and began jointly enrolling graduate students. In 2006, through judicial notarization, JISU donated all its assets to society. In 2007, it became the first and remains the only private university in China to be designated as a “Provincial Key University.” In 2010, with the approval of the State Council, it became the only pilot unit in the national education system reform, focusing on “exploring the Non-Profit private university model.” In 2011, it was approved by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council to become one of the first private universities to pilot the cultivation of professional degree graduate students (Master of Translation and Interpreting). In 2015, it became the first private university in China to establish a Confucius Institute in the United States. In 2016, it became the only private university selected for the “National Capacity Building Project for Universities in Central and Western China.” In 2017, it became the only private university in China to qualify for enrolling international students under the Chinese Government Scholarship Program. It successfully passed the Ministry of Education’s evaluation and was approved by the Jilin Provincial Academic Degrees Committee as a doctoral degree-granting unit under construction. In 2018, it was approved by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council as a master degree-granting unit and was renamed Jilin International Studies University with the approval of the Ministry of Education. In 2020, it was listed in the Jilin Provincial High-Level Applied University Construction Projects (Category A). In 2022, it was selected as a doctoral degree-granting unit under construction in Jilin Province (Category A). In 2024, it was approved as cultivation unit under the Jilin Provincial “A+” Plan for Doctoral and Master Degree Authorization Units (2024–2026).
Currently, JISU offers master degree programs in nine professional fields, including Translation, Education, TCSOL, International Business, Accounting, Tourism Management, Business Administration, Publishing, and Finance. Additionally, it has first-level discipline authorization points for master degrees in Education, Marxist Theory, and Foreign Language and Literature, covering 45 specialized areas. Among these, the Translation program encompasses nine languages: English, Japanese, Russian, Korean, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Italian.
JISU’s graduate education has long been oriented toward the needs of the Belt and Road Initiative and regional economic and social development. It has established a graduate faculty team composed of full-time, part-time Chinese faculty, and foreign teachers, implemented a “dual-mentor system,” and developed a collaborative education mechanism through school-government-enterprise cooperation. Leveraging disciplinary strengths and international resources, the school has created a distinctive training system characterized by “on-campus learning + overseas practice + industry training,” forming an applied and internationalized graduate talent cultivation model. JISU has become a national demonstration base for the reform of private higher education, a training base for high-quality talent of applied foreign language and foreign affairs in Jilin Province, a distinctive world multicultural education center with the most language categories in Northeast China, and a cradle for cultivating “multilingual translation+” talent in Jilin Province.
