上海大学外国语学院着力于培养复合型外语应用人才和语言文学专门人才。2005年学院获上海市高校本科英语专业教育高地重点建设项目。 2006年在全国高等学校本科英语专业教学评估中评级为优秀。2007年荣获 全国大学英语教学改革示范点 。
学院现有专任教师近130名，其中高级职称教师约占教师总数的30％，具有博士学位的教师约占教师总数的35%，具有海外学习与考察经历的占教师总数的90%以上。
学院设有英语系、日语系和法语系，分设英语、日语、法语三个本科专业。学院现有1个 语言文化与世界文明 二级学科交叉博士点；1个 外国语言文学 一级学科硕士点，下设 外国语言学与应用语言学 、 英语语言文学 、 日语语言文学 等3个二级学科学术型硕士点；1个 MTI翻译硕士（英语笔译/日语笔译） 二级学科专业型硕士点。此外，学院还负责上海大学近两万名非英语专业本科生、硕士生、博士生的英语、日语、德语、法语、韩语、西班牙语等外语教学。学院除开设外语听、说、读、写、译等语言课程之外，还开设各类选修课程供学生选修，并鼓励学生参加第二学位专业学习。
在国家教育部主办的英语专业四级和英语专业八级统考中，英语系学生的通过率历年均达到A级院系标准。在由国际交流基金和日本国际教育协会共同举办的日本语能力测试（N1级）中，日语系学生合格率为98.6％。英语和日语专业学生每年都参加全国各类演讲比赛和辩论大赛，并屡获大奖。
学院设有：英语文学文化研究中心（校级）、比较文学与跨文化研究中心（校级）、应用翻译研究中心（校级）、东亚研究中心（校级）、修辞批评研究中心、外语教育研究中心、日本研究交流中心、话语研究中心、英文写作研究中心、MTI教育中心、翻译研究出版中心（校级）、海派文化国际传播研究中心等研究机构，承办主编应用外语核心C刊《上海翻译》。
国家教育部考试中心在学院设立了托福测试（TOEFL）、日本语能力测试(JLPT)等考点。
学院注重加强对外联系与交流，与美国、英国、加拿大、澳大利亚、德国、意大利、西班牙、日本和韩国等国的大学建立长期合作关系，每年都有10-20%的学生参加国外大学交换生和海外实习项目，拓展国际视野，培养跨文化沟通能力。学院长期与国外大学开展师生互访、讲学等学术与教学活动，提高教学质量。
Briefing on School of Foreign Languages of Shanghai University
Shanghai University is on the list of "Project 21" for higher education, a strategic program of the Chinese government which aims at turning its 100 frontline universities into the academically advanced institutions that will be internationally prestigious in the new century.
The School of Foreign Languages of Shanghai University has, all along, committed itself to cultivating qualified personnel of foreign languages who master inter-disciplinary knowledge and practical skills. In 2005, our school was bestowed by Shanghai Education Commission a key project for developing its English undergraduate program. English specialty was rated Class A in the National Evaluation for English Undergraduate Program in the following year. The school was awarded the honorable title of "The National Model of College English Teaching Reform" in 2007.
Our school now has a teaching staff of 130, among whom about 30% are associate professors or full professors, and 45 teachers hold doctorate. Over 90% of our teachers have studied or conducted academic work in foreign universities.
We now have English Department, Japanese Department and French Department, each of which holds English undergraduate program, Japanese undergraduate program and French undergraduate program respectively. based on the master program of the first-level discipline in Foreign Language and Literature, the school provides three master programs of the second-level disciplines, which cover foreign linguistics and applied linguistics, English language and literature, and Japanese language and literature. In addition, we were authorized to launch MIT program (Master of Interpreters and Translators) in 2010. Our teachers offer courses in English, Japanese, German, French, Korean, Spanish, etc. for about twenty thousand who are non-foreign languages majors, including undergraduates, master and doctoral candidates of the university. Apart from the traditional courses such as listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating of the foreign languages school, the teachers also present other optional courses to the students. Our students are incited to take minor programs.
In both Grade Four and Grade Eight of Test for English Majors which are organized by the State Education Commission, our passing rate reaches the standards set for the nation-wide Grade A colleges and departments of foreign languages over the years. Each year more than 98% of our Japanese majors pass Japanese Language Proficiency Test(N1), a test jointly initiated by China International Exchange Foundation and Japan International Education Society. In the national English or Japanese speech competitions and debate contests, our participants have carried off the prizes of various grades in the past consecutive years.
We have set up four academic centers in our school, e.g. Popular Foreign Literature Research Centre, British and American Literature Research Center, Translation Research Centre and East Asia Research Center. We are accredited to edit Shanghai Journal of Translators for Science and Technology, one of the core journals in foreign languages research in China. Entrusted by the Testing Center under Ministry of Education, our school is held responsible for organizing Japanese Language Proficiency Test, Test of English as a Foreign Language.
Having attached importance to the contacts and exchanges with overseas universities, we have maintained long-term academic and collaborative ties with the universities in the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and Republic of Korea. Every year the exchange programs permit about 10% to 20% of our students to exercise their internship in those universities.
