The Institute of World Literature boasts a well-disciplined faculty who excel both in creative academic research and teaching competence. The institute maintains an important position in SFL. All of its teachers have received PhD degrees in literature. The institute is dedicated to promoting the multidisciplinary, cross-cultural and historically self-reflective studies of world literature in a broad sense.

Formally established in 1986, the Institute of World Literature was initially called the PKU Research Center for World Literature. It was successively managed by the former departments of Russian Language and Literature and Western Languages and Literatures. The faculty of the former departments of Russian Language and Literature, Western Languages and Literatures, English Language and Literature and Oriental Languages and Literatures were all involved in teaching and instructing graduate students. After the establishment of SFL in 1999, the Research Center for World Literature developed itself into a more regular and independent body of teaching and research under the Institute of World Literature.

The institute mainly aims to train professionals able to undertake teaching, researching and editing tasks in the fields of Comparative Literature, World Literature and Comparative Cultural Studies. It also trains related professionals in the fields of world culture, international communication, domestic and foreign media and cultural management and translation. Since 1986, the institute has been receiving master's candidates. More than 100 students have graduated from the institute, and three postdoctoral researchers have completed the program. Currently we have 27 graduate students including seven doctoral candidates. The institute also has two doctoral advisors with doctoral programs in the following four directions, namely World Literature, Cross-cultural Studies, Relationship of Russian Literature and World Culture and Western Poetics and Comparative Poetics.

The institute is distinctive in hosting academic events actively. It engages itself in international communication extensively and it is outstanding in research achievements. The institute serves as the base for the following organizations: PKU's Center for World Auto/Biography, PKU's Literature and Translation Studies Association, Shakespeare Association of China (SAC), the Biographical Society, the International Association for Comparative Studies of China and the West (IACSCW) and World Literature Association (WLA).

The major Comparative Literature and World Literature Studies offered by the institute is one of the national key disciplines.