The Department of Hispanic and Portuguese of Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) offers two programs, the Spanish Program and the Portuguese Program, while also offering a Catalan language course. In December 1952, under the guidance of Premier Zhou Enlai, BFSU established the Spanish Program. In February 1959, the Spanish Program separated from the German-Spanish-French Department and became an independent department-level teaching unit. The Portuguese Program was established in 1960. In 1979, the Spanish Program became the first in the country to grant master's degrees in the field. In 1996, it became the first in the country to grant doctoral degrees in the discipline of Spanish. In 2006, the Spanish Department was renamed the Department of Hispanic and Portuguese Languages. In 2007, the Spanish Program became one of the first featured programs in higher education designated by the Ministry of Education, and in 2008, it became a featured program among Beijing's higher education institutions. In 2007, the Portuguese Program began to train master-degree students. In 2010, the department's Spanish Language and Literature became a key discipline in Beijing. In 2015, it took the lead to launch the first master's program in Spanish Translation and Interpreting (MTI) in domestic universities. In 2017, the Beijing Consortium of Spanish and Portuguese Programs was established, which was initiated by the Department of Hispanic and Portuguese of BFSU. In 2018, the Department of Hispanic and Portuguese Languages was renamed the Department of Hispanic and Portuguese. In 2019, both the Spanish and Portuguese programs became the first batch of the nation's top-tier undergraduate program development units. Today, the department is known as the longest-standing and most well-endowed department while also being the most experienced teaching and research center for Spanish and Portuguese language education in the country.

The department also includes:

the Higher Education EEE-4 and EEE-8 Exam Office,

the Mexico Research Center,

the Latin American Research Center,

the National Spanish and Portuguese Language Teachers' Development Center,

the Dong Yansheng Education Fund,

the Sino-Portuguese Language and Culture Exchange Cooperation Union,

and the Yumei Studio (a national university career development studio). 

The institute currently boasts a full-time faculty of 31 members, six administrative staff members, 400 undergraduate students, 60 master-degree students, and six doctoral candidates.