The College of Public Administration traces its origins back to 1952 as the Marxist-Leninist Teaching and Research Section. It was renamed the Department of Social Sciences in 1998. In 1999, the department was restructured into the College of Arts and Law. In 2011, the Teaching Division of Marxist Theory and the Teaching Division of Ideological and Political Education split off to form an independent College of Marxism, and the institution was renamed the College of Public Administration in 2018.

The college comprises five departments: the Department of Administrative Management, Department of Law, Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Department of Urban Management and Development, and Department of Cultural Industry Development and Management. It also runs two teaching and management centers: the MPA Center and the Experimental Teaching Center. The college has 79 faculty members in total, including 67 full-time teachers. Among full-time teachers are 18 professors (4 university-appointed professors), 29 associate professors (5 university-appointed associate professors), and 20 lecturers, with 50 teachers holding doctoral degrees.

Four undergraduate majors are available for enrollment: Law, Administrative Management, Cultural Industry Management, and Network and New Media, with 1,795 undergraduates currently studying at the college. The college holds two first-tier master’s degree authorization disciplines: Public Administration and History of Science and Technology. It also offers three professional master’s programs: Master of Public Administration (MPA), Juris Master, and Master of Agriculture (Rural Development).

Attaching great importance to social science research, the college features distinctive research strengths in rural social development and governance, and has built four flagship research fields: Local Government and Grassroots Social Governance, Agricultural Law, Agricultural History and Culture, and Creative Villages.Six research centers have been established: Shandong Research Center for Drug Rehabilitation, SDAU Research Center for Local Government and Rural Governance, Research Center for Agricultural History and Culture, Research Center for Creative Villages, Research Center for Intra-Party Regulations and Integrity Development, and Research Center for the Rule of Law in Agriculture, Rural Areas and Farmers. There is also one research institute, the SDAU Taishan Institute of Rule of Law. The college serves as the secretariat of the Shandong Agricultural History Society and the Agricultural Law Research Committee under the Shandong Law Society.

In recent years, faculty have undertaken more than 80 research projects funded at national, provincial and ministerial levels or entrusted by government authorities at all tiers, won over 30 scientific research awards of various grades, published more than 20 monographs, and released over 400 academic papers in high-caliber humanities and social science journals including Social Sciences in China.

Centered on the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education and drawing on its disciplinary strengths, the college carries out two key initiatives: Cultural Education and Competition-Driven Learning. It has built three major platforms for ideological and political education, social practice, and innovation and entrepreneurship. A series of campus cultural brands embodying moral cultivation, profound scholarship and integration of knowledge and practice have been created, represented by the Reading SDAU and Spring Poetry Festival events. More than 300 faculty and students have received national and provincial honors for outstanding performance.

Upholding the university motto To climb higher, you must start from the bottom, the college advances alongside the university’s Double First-Class development drive. Adhering to the people-oriented philosophy and pursuing coordinated development of arts, management and law, it follows the schooling guideline of optimizing disciplinary structure, expanding academic outreach, advancing integrated innovation and lifting overall academic standards. The college strives to achieve high-quality development in talent cultivation, scientific research and social services.