Founded in 1964, Beijing International Studies University is a nationally renowned key comprehensive university of higher education and has developed into a multi-disciplinary university incorporating liberal arts, management, economics and law, with specialties of foreign languages and tourism as its most distinguishing feature. Selecting students nationwide, the university takes it as its main task to train professionals proficient in foreign languages, tourism, economics, trade and finance, for the national economic construction and social advance.

Besides the modern language departments that teach English, Japanese, German, Russian, French, Spanish, Arabic and Korean, the university offers courses in a variety of schools. They are The School of International Communication, The School of Law and Politics, The School of International Cultural Exchange, The School for Continuing Education and The School for Advanced Vocational Education. The university also has an institute for Trans-culture Studies and The Academy of Tourism Development. Following a policy of providing higher education for its students on a multi-level and multi-purpose basis, the university offers 16 specialties in undergraduate programmes. They are English, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, French, Korean, German, Chinese Language and Culture, International Politics, Law, Tourism Management, Journalism, Marketing, Finance and International Economics and Trade. The specialties of English, Japanese, Russian, Foreign Language and Literature and Applied Linguistics, Enterprise Management, International Business and Tourism Management offer postgraduate programs. The specialties of Tourism Management and International Economics and Business take in Double Bachelor degree students. Currently the university has an enrollment of more than 8000 Chinese students and 900 plus international students including postgraduate and language students.

Beijing International Studies University benefits from its large team of experienced teachers of various professions. Among the 600 plus faculty members and experts, 200 are professors and associate professors and most of them have studied or taught abroad.

In addition, the university has multi-media language laboratories of various sizes, classrooms equipped with computers, and a satellite-TV reception system. Its library has a wide and varied collection of books and periodicals. With the help of its audio-visual, microfilm viewing and on-line computer services, as well as a large reading-room, the library provides its users with up-to-date information on a wide range of subjects.