Founded in 1994, as the original School of International Politics and Economic Relations, School of Political Science and Public Administration(SPSPA) in Shandong University covers 2 general academic subjects: political science and public management. Now, the SPSPA has 4 academic departments--Political Science, International Politics, Public Administration and Scientific Socialism, and 5 research centres—Institute of Contemporary Socialism, Center for European Studies, Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Institute of Political Party and Institute of Public Policy. At present, there are 62 full-time faculty members, among them are 42 teaching staffs including 14 professors, 21 associate professors and 13 lecturers--60 percent of them have the PhD degree and have stayed abroad for further study.
With the effort of all members, the SPSPA has made great progress in discipline development in recent years. It is authorized to run all doctoral degree programs within the general academic subject of political science. The SPSPA currently runs PhD programs in sub-disciplines including International Politics, Party Politics, Political Theory, and Scientific Socialism Study; MA programs in all sub-disciplines under the general academic subject of political science. In addition, it also runs MA program in Public Administration as well as the MPA program. At the BA level, the SPSPA offers 5 specialty programs: International Politics．
There are more than 1000 students studying in the School’s BA, MA and PhD programs. The SPSPA has been devoting to cross-subject teaching and research which integrates politics, policy, domestic affairs and international affairs. It also actively encourages undergraduate students to take part in the ‘three experiences’ program which was initiated by Shandong University authority. In addition, the SPSPA is doing its best to improve teaching quality through innovating educational methods, experimenting bilingual teaching and enhancing cooperation with oversea partners, and so on.
As the earliest institute running the MA Program in Public Administration and MPA Program in Shandong Province, the SPSPA is devoted to cultivate high-quality experts and academics in the subject of public administration. Meanwhile, it aims to play a leading role in training outstanding management professionals and offering consultation for government agencies.
Academic research is the most important foundation for an institute’s development and discipline construction. The SPSPA has made remarkable achievements in this regard in recent years. Aside from their teaching tasks, academic staffs are organized through the 4 academic departments and 5 research centers. Over the past years, the SPSPA has established its leading or well-recognized position in China as well as abroad in areas of specialties such as European Politics and Society, Environment Politics, Regional Political Theory, Party Politics and Contemporary Socialism Study.
The SPSPA puts its priority on international academic exchanges and cooperation. It has established its close and regular cooperation relationship with more than 10 famous universities and academic institutes around the world.
The SPSPA is equipped with modern computer teaching lab, administration professional lab, foreign language teaching lab, and more than 5 multimedia classrooms—the largest one can accommodate 300 audiences.
The SPSPA Library covers an area of 200 square meters, and has a collection of more than 50 000 volumes books and 300 kind of academic journals in Chinese and foreign languages. Both the school library and the various labs offer professional services for scientific research, teaching and study.