Subordinate to the Chongqing People's Government, SISU is located at the Gele Mountain Forest Park by the Jialing River, covering a total area of 770,000 square meters, with a total constructed area of 230,000 square meters. With its quiet and beautiful surroundings and profound cultural heritage the college is granted the title of "a garden-like unit" of Chongqing by the municipal government.

SISU has been growing vigorously in its reform and innovation to meet the demand of reform, opening and socialist modernization of the country. Foreign languages offered in the college include Russian, English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. A number of non-language specialities have been added to its curriculum, such as law, journalism, Chinese as a foreign language, advertising, and tourism management. Six master degree programs have been offered, namely, Russian Language and Literature, English Language and Literature, French Language and Literature, German Language and Literature, Japanese Language and Literature, Comparative Literature and World Literature. The institution embodies education on different levels: postgraduate studies for master's degree, regular undergraduate studies, three-year college studies, advanced vocational and technical education, studies in short-term intensive training programs, etc. SISU has six subordinate colleges, seven departments, and a postgraduate department, a Chinese department for international students, a training department for personnel going abroad which is directly under the Ministry of Education, a training center for international trade in mechanical and electrical equipment sponsored by the State Council, and test centers for such tests as TOEFL, IELTS, GRE, BEC, TOPE, and graded tests in applied computer science. SISU has 19 foreign language schools attached to it in Chongqing, Sichuan, Hubei and Guizhou. The college has established exchange relations with over 20 universities in other countries.

SISU recruits students who major in arts or in science at middle school from all over the country. There are about 11,000 students studying at the college, of whom 8,000 are postgraduate students, undergraduate students and 3-year college students, and more than 2,500 are students studying in adult education programs, students in intensified short-term training programs and students from other countries.
The college has a strong contingent of devoted, qualified and experienced teachers with a considerable level of teaching and scientific research. Of the permanent staff of over 1,100, about 500 are professional teachers working at SISU main campus. More than 170 of the teachers are professors, associate professors, research fellows or associate research fellows, and more than 20 foreign experts, scholars and teachers are engaged each year to teach at the college. In the past fifty years and more, SISU has graduated more than 50,000 advanced foreign language professionals who are working in different parts of China and in about 50 other countries.
SISU attaches great importance to scientific research. Its Base for Humanity and Social Science Studies, a key research unit in Chongqing, has a number of subordinate research institutions, including the North American Research Institute, the Translation Research Institute, the Research Institute of World Literature and Comparative Literature, the Chinese and Foreign Culture Research Institute; besides, there are some other research bodies, such as the Research Institute of Higher Education and the Tourism and Aesthetics Cultural Research Institute. The college publishes three periodicals: The Sichuan International Studies University Journal, Children of the World, and The Sichuan International Studies University Bulletin. More than 50 scientific research projects of SISU have won awards as outstanding achievements in studies of philosophy and social sciences of the national and provincial / municipal levels since 1978.

The SISU library has an electronic reading-room in addition to a collection of more than 600,000 volumes of books. The library boasts a sizeable collection of foreign language and literature works in the original published in foreign countries and reference books on language studies; besides, it has subscribed to more than 1,200 newspapers and periodicals in Chinese and foreign languages. To keep herself abreast of the information revolution, SISU has established the Educational Technology Service (ETS) that is well equipped with advanced high-tech facilities undertaking computer education of SISU as well as supporting an audio-visual instruction center, a computer network system and various modern electronic audio-visual teaching aids, audio and video teaching materials, a satellite signal reception system and terminals for on-line information searching to meet the need of teaching.

In the light of the school motto of unity, diligence, rigorous attitude and realistic approach, SISU has encouraged all-round development of its students in their skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating, laying special stress on the cultivation of their skills in listening and speaking in order to meet the need of society. The college has made special efforts in embracing more fields of studies in its academic programs while giving prominence to its special features and giving full display to its advantages in foreign languages. Special efforts have been made to encourage the mutual penetration between foreign language studies and non-language studies and to improve its education quality and to raise its level of scientific research so as to cultivate advanced foreign language professionals of high quality with a wide scope of knowledge in other related fields.

SISU is making an effort to develop into a base in southwest China for training foreign language professionals of high quality with knowledge in other related fields, a base for foreign language teaching and research, and a center for foreign language materials and information consultation .