The university is part of Project 211 and the Double First-Class Construction.

[3] BFSU was affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from its establishment in 1941 to the early 1980s.

[5] More than 70 years, over 90,000 people have graduated from the Beijing Foreign Studies University.

[6][non-primary source needed] BFSU is a research university specializing in foreign language studies.

[8]: 201  BFSU ranked 17th out of almost 3,000 higher education institutions in China according to statistics based on the Gaokao from 2012 to 2023.