Continuing education at the university dates back to 1911. Its predecessor, Shandong Higher Agricultural School, launched various forms of agricultural technical training one after another.After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the university set up the Correspondence Office in 1956 and enrolled its special correspondence class in Agronomy in 1957, making it one of the earliest institutions nationwide to offer adult higher education.Since then, multiple departments have successively administered adult education, including the Part-time Education Office under the Academic Affairs Division, Training Classes, Training Department, Training Division and Adult Education Office. The College of Continuing Education was founded in 1993. It was renamed the College of Continuing Education in August 2007, and the plaque of College of Rural Revitalization was added to the college in April 2023.Since the founding of the university, more than 310,000 talents of all types have been cultivated, forming an important force serving regional economic and social development.

Guided by the school-running positioning of moderate scale, standardized management, distinctive features and top-tier quality, academic continuing education advances high-quality development of degree education driven by reform goals. At present, academic continuing education covers three levels: Senior High to Junior College, Senior High to Bachelor’s Degree, and Junior College to Bachelor’s Degree.Drawing on its strengths in agricultural disciplines and catering to practitioners’ demands, it offers 40 enrollment majors (including 14 national first-class majors and 15 provincial first-class majors). Agronomy and Hydraulic and Hydroelectric Engineering have been recognized as brand majors of provincial adult higher education.The university keeps optimizing talent training programs, boosting co-construction and sharing of high-quality educational resources, and standardizes the operation of off-campus teaching centers. In 2006, it was honored as an Excellent University for Correspondence and Evening Education by Shandong Provincial Department of Education. In 2018, it was named a Benchmark Institution for Informatization Construction by China Educational Technology Association. Since 2022, the college has vigorously advanced reforms of degree education by standardizing examination administration, implementing offline face-to-face teaching, assigning full-time faculty to supervise graduation theses (designs), and holding centralized opening and graduation ceremonies, leading to remarkable improvement in teaching quality.

Centered on major national development strategies, training education proactively adapts to economic and social demands and upholds the philosophy of lifelong education. Taking fostering virtue through education as its fundamental task and strengthening agriculture as its mission, it prioritizes training practical talents required by national and regional economic and social progress, and delivers high-quality training programs for rural revitalization. It serves as a key platform for the university to serve social and economic development and realize the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. It has obtained approval for 8 national-level talent training bases and 6 provincial-level bases. In recent years, the college has continuously strengthened the construction of four resource libraries: training programs, special topics, teaching faculty and on-site teaching bases, so as to lift training quality and highlight distinctive training characteristics.Since 2006, over 120,000 trainees have received training covering all 31 provinces, municipalities directly under the Central Government and autonomous regions across China, contributing SDAU’s strength to economic and social development.

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the college will commit itself to lifelong learning for all people, comprehensive rural revitalization and the university’s high-quality development. Keeping abreast of the new landscape and shouldering new missions, we will pool our efforts, forge ahead with innovation, and make due contributions to the university’s pursuit of national first-class disciplines and the development of a world-class agricultural university.