Shanghai University of Political Science and Law

Institutional Mission

The university’s mission is to “be rooted in political science and law, serve Shanghai, reach the whole country and look to the world.” It pursues distinctive, excellent and innovative development, seeking to cultivate high-quality, versatile applied professionals with solid theoretical foundations, a commitment to the rule of law, innovative thinking, a global perspective and practical abilities. It is building a disciplinary system centered on law, with coordinated development in political science, Marxist theory, sociology, economics, management, literature, education, the arts and other disciplines, and aims to become a nationally renowned political science and law university with distinctive characteristics.

Disciplines and Programs

Its schools include the School of Law, School of Economic Law (Silk Road Lawyers School), School of International Law, School of Criminal Justice, School of Policing, School of Economics and Management, School of Social Management, School of International Affairs and Public Administration, School of Literature and Media, Shanghai Documentary School, School of Foreign Languages, School of Marxism, Higher Vocational College, School of International Exchange, and School of Continuing Education. Its teaching departments include computer studies and physical education.

Talent Development

The university treats educational quality as its lifeline and involves all staff in education across all areas and throughout the entire student experience, continually improving student development. In recent years, the cumulative pass rate for the College English Test Band 4 has exceeded 90%, and the Band 6 pass rate has been at least 60%. Innovation and entrepreneurship education has produced a series of achievements. Students have received more than 20 awards at provincial or municipal level or above in the Challenge Cup extracurricular academic works competition, the highest award at the Seventh National College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Annual Conference in 2014, the special prize in Shanghai’s Seventh Zhixing Cup Social Practice Competition, and championships in two consecutive Shanghai University Student Rule-of-Law Debate Competitions. Student-produced documentaries have repeatedly won major awards in China and abroad. Both the men’s and women’s university cricket teams have won national championships for consecutive years. In September and October 2017, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Secretary-General Rashid Alimov respectively sent congratulatory letters to the university’s Model United Nations Association, praising its positive contributions. The graduate employment rate has remained at least 97% for consecutive years, among the highest at Shanghai universities. In 2013, the Shanghai Municipal Government named it an Advanced Collective for Promoting Employment in Shanghai.

Faculty

The university has a strong, well-structured faculty with an appropriate balance across career levels. Its teachers have solid disciplinary and theoretical knowledge, close links with professional practice in China and abroad, extensive teaching experience and international perspectives. It has more than 600 faculty and staff and nearly 500 full-time teachers. Nearly 50% of teachers have senior professional titles, and 90% hold doctoral or master’s degrees. More than 90 are qualified as doctoral or master’s supervisors. Its distinguished teachers include experts receiving special State Council allowances, members of the Ministry of Education’s Higher Education Law Teaching Guidance Committee, Eastern Scholars, Shanghai young and middle-aged legal scholars, Shanghai’s Ten Outstanding Young People, Shanghai distinguished teachers, Pujiang Talents, Shuguang Scholars, Chenguang Scholars, and National Baosteel Outstanding Teachers. It also employs more than 100 experts and scholars from China’s legal academia and legal practice institutions as visiting or adjunct professors.

National Projects

The university actively addresses major national and social development needs and serves national strategies. On September 13, 2013, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek, President Xi Jinping announced that China would establish the China-Shanghai Cooperation Organisation International Judicial Exchange and Cooperation Training Base at the university, and was willing to use the platform to train judicial personnel for other member states. This was the first time China’s head of state announced to the world a national project to be undertaken by a university.

The university has achieved a series of results by fully developing the training base’s three functions: training, think-tank research and forums. To date, it has successfully completed nearly 20 foreign assistance training courses commissioned by central ministries including the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Commerce. Over the past three years, it has submitted nearly 200 decision-support and advisory reports; several received instructions from central leaders, and dozens were individually adopted by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee. In 2016, its submitted decision-support and advisory work ranked second among Shanghai universities in the Shanghai education Party committee system. The university hosts the Supreme People’s Court Belt and Road Judicial Research Base, a Shanghai university key humanities and social science research base, and the Shanghai Educational Legislation Advisory and Service Research Base. Its Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Research Institute and Northeast Asia Research Center are regional and country studies centers approved and registered by the Ministry of Education. It is a council member of the Belt and Road Think Tank Cooperation Alliance. The Shanghai Municipal Government included the SCO Training Base in its Action Plan for Shanghai to Serve the National Belt and Road Initiative and Fulfill Its Bridgehead Role.

International Exchange

The university is accelerating internationalization. It is an institution for educating Chinese Government Scholarship students and participants in China-US people-to-people exchange programs, and a member of the Study in China Overseas Preparatory Education Alliance. It has been approved to establish the only preparatory education center in the Yangtze River Delta region. It began admitting international students in 2013. It has friendly partnerships with 64 universities and institutions worldwide, including prominent international organizations such as the Hague Conference on Private International Law and the International Chamber of Commerce, and renowned universities such as Universite de Montreal in Canada, the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom and Washington University in St. Louis in the United States. It has established an English Language Training Center for Overseas Study and more than ten joint undergraduate, master’s and doctoral training programs, including “3+1,” “2+2” and “2+1” models.