"With the philosophy of 'interpreting the world and translating the future', the school's vision is designed to create a world-class university for global and area studies to help China understand the major changes that are taking place in the world today and share China's knowledge with the rest of the world," said Jiang Feng, Party secretary of SISU, one of the earliest institutions where the country's higher education in foreign language took shape.

"In order to grasp the opportunities that this new era presents, SISU will require foresight, patience and determination to deliver impact through international, innovative and interdisciplinary research and teaching," Jiang added.

According to SISU, higher education institutions for international studies will have a crucial role to play in the coming years as China becomes more influential in world affairs. As such, SISU will be supporting the nation through "multilingual plus", a future-oriented strategy that is designed to ensure that graduates are knowledgeable in a wide range of subject areas, in addition to having a global mindset, excellent intercultural communication skills, and being proficiency in at least two foreign languages.