SHUPL adheres to “Being Based on Political Science and Law, Serving Shanghai, Facing the Country and Having the Whole World in View” while pursuing characteristic, excellent and innovative development. The goal is to cultivate high-quality, compound applied talents with solid theoretical foundation, spirit of law, innovative thinking, global vision and practical abilities, build a disciplinary system focused on the major of Law while a variety of subjects such as Politics, Marxist Criticism, Sociology, Economics, Management, Literature, Pedagogy, Arts and so forth develop coordinately. SHUPL is working on becoming a domestically distinctive and well-known university of political science and law.

SHUPL consists of Law School, School of Economic Law (Silk Road Lawyers School), the School of International Law, School of Criminal Justice, School of Policing Studies, 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, School of Higher Vocational Education, School of International Communication and Exchange, School of Continuing Education and Computer-teaching Department, Sports Department and other teaching departments.

 SHUPL adheres to the education quality as the lifeline, and implements all-staff, all-round and whole process education to improve the training quality of students. SHUPL has achieved a lot of students' innovation and entrepreneurship education results. SHUPL has won more than 20 provincial and municipal above awards in “Challenge Cup Extra-curricular Academic Competition”, won the highest award of the Seventh National College Students' Innovation and Entrepreneurship Annual Meeting (2014) and the special award at the Seventh “Knowledge and Practice Cup” College Students' Social Practice Competition. In addition, SHUPL has won twice the championship of “the Debate Competition on Rule of Law” of Shanghai university students. And our students’ documentaries have won many awards home and abroad. Both men and women's cricket teams have won the first place at the National Cricket Championships. Moreover, in September and October 2017, the United Nations (UN) Secretary General Guterres and the Secretary General of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Alimov sent congratulatory letters to the Model United Nations Association (MUNA) of SHUPL, commending the positive contributions of MUNA. The employment rate of graduates has been above 97% for many years, which is among the top in Shanghai. In 2013, SHUPL had been awarded “Shanghai Advanced Collectives for Employment Promotion” which was given by Shanghai Municipal People’s Government.

 SHUPL has abundant and qualified teaching staff. The structure of teaching staff is optimized. They are experienced and equipped with international horizon and have a close connection with the practice field domestic and overseas. SHUPL now have more than 600 staff, including 500 teachers. Almost half of them are in senior positions, 90% of whom have a PhD or master degree. In SHUPL, 90 professors or associate professors are qualified to be a doctoral or master’s supervisor. Besides, SHUPL has a group of outstanding teachers such as the State Council Experts for Special Allowances, the member of the Advisory Board under the Ministry of Education on the Law Major, Oriental Scholar, Shanghai Young Jurists, Shanghai Top Ten Outstanding Youth, Shanghai Most Famous Teachers, Pujiang Talents, Shuguang Scholars, Chenguang Scholars, Baosteel Excellent Teachers in China. In addition, SHUPL has hired more than 100 domestic scholars and experts on law or working in legal practice departments to work as visiting or part-time professors.

 SHUPL initiatively adjusts to the great demand of national and social development and actively serves the national strategy. On September 13th, 2013, President Xi Jinping announced at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Bishkek Summit that China will set up “China-SCO International Judicial Exchange and Cooperation Training Base” at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law and is willing to cultivate judicial talents for other member countries on this platform. This is the first national project undertaken by one university which is announced by our president to the world.

 SHUPL gives full play to the three functions of SCO training base including training, think tank and forum, which gain a series of achievements. So far, the training base has received commissions from central ministries like Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Commerce and so forth, and successfully completed foreign-aid training tasks. In recent 3 years. SHUPL possesses the Supreme People's Court “One Belt One Road” judicial research base, Shanghai University Humanity and Social Science Key Research Base and Shanghai Education Legislation Advisory and Service Research Base. SHUPL also have SCO Institute and Center for Northeast Asian Studies which are regional and national research centers approved by the Ministry of Education. SHUPL is the council member of “One Belt One Road” Think Tank Alliance. The SCO Training Base of SHUPL has been listed by Shanghai Municipal Government into Action Plan on Shanghai Serving China-proposed “One Belt One Road” Construction and Playing a Bridgehead Role.

 SHUPL is accelerating the process of internationalization. The university is the Chinese Government Scholarships Students Training Institution, Sino-US Humanities Project Training Institution and a member of “Study in China” Overseas Preparatory Education Alliance. SHUPL is the member of China Campus Network (CCN), and is the first one to be approved to set up the Preparatory Education Center in Yangtze River Delta Area. Since 2013, SHUPL has started to recruit international students. So far, SHUPL has built friendly and collaborative relationship with 64 colleges and universities and other educational institutions including well-known international organizations such as Hague Conference on Private International Law, the International Chamber of Commerce, etc. SHUPL also has established Overseas English Language Training Centers and developed more than ten joint training programs for undergraduate, master and PhD students (such as “3+1” “2+2” “2+1”) with famous universities like the Université de Montréal, the University of Leeds, and Washington University (St. Louis).