School of Politics and Public Administration

about us

School of Politics and Public Administration: Introduction

The school offers 4 undergraduate majors in Administration, Public Affairs Administration, Political Science & Public Administration and Social Work, 2 master’s degrees in Political Science and Public Administration (granted Chongqing Municipal First-Level Key Discipline), and 1 professional master’s degree in MPA. The school has 2 Chongqing “Three-Specials” specialty majors, and 2 Chongqing “Three Specials” specialty disciplinary groups, 2 Chongqing teaching teams, 3 provincial and ministerial research bases (think tanks), 4 Chongqing graduate education high-quality courses, and 1 Chongqing high-quality course. The school is the base of the Secretariat of the Chongqing Political Science Association.

I. Faculty

The faculty of the School of Politics and Public Administration has a strong teaching team with a rational and optimized teaching structure, which has formed a municipal-level teaching team mainly composed of young and middle-aged backbones. Most of the faculty members have the experience of studying in more than two universities, and nearly 20 of them have the experience of studying abroad and lecturing abroad. At present, there are 4 Ph.D. advisers in the school.

Many of our faculty members have been awarded the title of “Chongqing Excellent Teacher”, “Excellent Middle-aged and Young Backbone Teacher Among Universities in Chongqing”, or “Chongqing Academic and Technical Leader Candidate of Administration”, or selected for the Chongqing Social Science Expert Pool or the “Support Plan of Outstanding Talents Among Chongqing Higher Education Institutions”. Some of the teachers also hold such part-time position as counselor of Chongqing Municipal Government, consulting expert of Chongqing Municipal Government, emergency management expert of Chongqing Municipal Government, or director of the National Institute of Policy Science. They actively provide decision-making advice to the government in formulating relevant policies and regulations, development planning, and industry standards.

II. Scientific Research

The School of Politics and Public Administration has a strong teaching and research strength, and distinctive academic research characteristics, forming a scientific research feature focusing on ethnic political research, national governance and public security, basic political science theory and comparative political research and a relatively complete talent cultivation system. The school has built a Chongqing Humanities and Social Sciences Key Research Base - China Social Stability and Crisis Management Research Center, and a Chongqing Education Work Committee and Education Committee Think Tank - Chongqing Universities Maintenance of Stability Consultation and Politics Research Center.

III. Talent Cultivation

The school has made the following explorations in the mode of talent cultivation: implementing a mentoring system for undergraduate students; holding regular study sessions; publishing student publications; implementing top talent cultivation and innovation plan; establishing social research groups for university students; actively promoting inter-campus exchange programs; cultivating students’ practical skills by increasing the proportion of intensive internships; strengthening the learning culture; and actively adapting to the current development of the Internet by building online resources and establishing a rich library of online teaching resources. The school has formed a mature talent cultivation system, adhering to the concept of “Three Integrations”, “Four Orientations” and “Five Movements”.

The “Three-tions” - deep integration of political science and public administration; the long-term combination of political science, public administration and law; and the close cooperation between basic theoretical research, teaching and the practice department of national governance - have organically integrated basic theoretical knowledge, hands-on ability, and administrative tools to constantly improve the research capacity and ability to serve the society.

“The Four Orientations” are cultivation taking as its orientation the cultivation of high-level specialists with personal integrity and outstanding talent; teachers taking as its orientation propagating the doctrine, imparting professional knowledge, and resolving doubts; the allocation of teaching resources taking as its orientation the construction of the discipline; and students taking as its orientation healthy personality, full and free development and excellency.

The “Five Actions” are targeting at the substantial needs faced in national governance to promote the continuous development of the majors and disciplines and stimulate the awareness of problems and sense of responsibility; strengthening academic training and accumulation to drive and promote academic innovation research teams with projects; effectively strengthening the construction of various platforms to use the platforms to promote the improvement of the quality of talent cultivation and the competitive advantage of majors; expanding various internship and research bases to constantly achieve the positive interaction between professional theoretical knowledge and governance practice; and implementing the faculty development strategy of bringing in and going out.

In recent years, outstanding results have been achieved in students’ employment, scientific research and further study abroad. Each year, there are master’s degree candidates sent or going to famous universities in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and China’s Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao regions for short-term study or pursuit of degree, and yielding master’s theses awarded the Chongqing Excellent Thesis Award. After their graduation, graduate students, being inter-disciplinary talents in politics, law and administration, apart from being admitted to doctoral programs at famous universities at home and abroad such as Tsinghua University, Renmin University and Doshisha University, are recruited to management positions in party and government organs, judicial organs, enterprises and public institutions before becoming popular and highly praised management leaders because of their quick start and outstanding abilities.

At present, the school is making active exploration on the practical aspects, reforming and innovating the education and teaching mode, and on the basis of fully implementing the university’s scholarship and grant-in-aid policy for postgraduates, the school is putting the “combination of scientific research and teaching” into the whole process of cultivating academic postgraduates, focusing on cultivating the research and innovation ability and teamwork spirit of postgraduates, so as to further improve the cultivation level of postgraduates.

IV. Introduction to the Master’s Degree-Granting Institution

The SWUPL’s political science discipline is the earliest key discipline of political science in Chongqing, and is now accredited as the first-level master’s degree granting institution and the first-level key discipline in Chongqing. It was ranked 18th in China and 1st in Chongqing in the 2012 Discipline Assessment, and C+ in the 2017 Discipline Assessment, organized by the Ministry of Education. Among the candidates for mater’s degree enrolled in this discipline, 2 have been awarded the honorary title of “National Hundred Excellent Volunteers” by the Central Committee of Youth League, 1 awarded the “Chongqing Moral Model”, 1 the “Chongqing Ten Outstanding Volunteers”, and 1 the “China Youth Science and Technology Innovation Award”.

The discipline of public administration, which has been recruiting candidates in master’s degree in administration since 2004, is now accredited as a first-level key discipline in Chongqing, leading in Chongqing in the fields of public security administration, rule of law in administration, rule of law in education, and rule of law in health, and exerting certain influence in research in such areas as administrative law enforcement costs, marketization of public security services, mass incident blocking mechanism, and crisis management cost-sharing mechanism.

The SWUPL attaches great importance to the development of MPA program. There are 41 full-time teachers giving lectures on MPA core and compulsory courses, among whom 30 are professors, 36 doctors, and 31 with practice, research and consulting experience in public administration, accounting for 73%, 87% and 75% of the total number of teachers respectively. In addition, the university has invited more than 50 senior experts with rich practical experience as part-time professors or visiting professors from relevant central ministries and commissions, Party School of the Central Committee of CPC, National Academy of Governance, Chongqing Municipal People’s Government, Chongqing Higher People’s Court, Chongqing People’s Procuratorate and the Sichuan Provincial People’s Government.

The main features and advantages of SWUPL’s MPA program: complete disciplinary system formed by relying on the solid strength of law and the coordinated development of the humanities and social sciences; law-featured MPA education; meeting the multiple practical needs in the China’s construction of a rule-of-law, service-oriented and efficient government; and systematical cultivation of inter-disciplinary senior professionals in public administration that are experienced in legal practice, vigorous in public spirit and strong in administrative capacity.

V. Introduction to Undergraduate Majors

1. Political Science and Public Administration

Our Political Science and Public Administration major was ranked 19th in the 2019-2020 China Universities Competitiveness Ranking for Political Science and Public Administration Major (among 93 universities offering this major) in the 2019 China Universities Competitiveness Ranking by Major released by the Network of Science & Education Evaluation in China in March 2019; ranked 16th in China in the 2016 Evaluation Report of Chinese Universities, Disciplines and Majors jointly released by the Research Center for Chinese Science Evaluation (RCCSE) and two other organizations; ranked 11th in China, with a 4-star rating and level of running being a high-level major in China, in the 2016 Best Major Ranking of Chinese Universities released by the China University Alumni Association ; ranked 16th in China and 1st in Chongqing in the Ranking for Political Science and Public Administration Major , with a 4-star rating, in the 2018 Ranking for Undergraduate Majors released by the China University Alumni Association ; selected as among Chongqing specialty majors in 2016 and Chongqing specialty disciplinary groups in 2017, and listed on the List of National First-class Undergraduate Major Construction Sites in 2020.

With the mission of serving the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity and the aim of cultivating talents that can “understand politics, manage wisely, enforce the law, ensure security and promote development”, featured by cultivating high-level applied and inter-disciplinary talents dedicated to national governance and public security, the political science and public administration major has formed unique interdisciplinary advantages of “Political Science and Public Administration + Public Affairs Administration + Public Security”, integrated administration, sociology and other disciplinary resources, and established the school-running philosophy of targeting at national strategy, rooted in law-dominated university, and serving the political, economic and social development.

2. Administration

The major is not only a national specialty major, but also selected as among the first batch of Chongqing’s specialty major construction projects under the “Three-Specials Action Plan” and the first batch of Chongqing’s “Three-Specials” disciplinary group “Public Opinion Dissemination and Risk Management”. The discipline of public administration on which this major is based is the first-level discipline authorized to grant the master’s degree and can grant the national master’s degree in public administration (MPA).

The administration major has been rated as a five-star major and ranked first in Chongqing in the “ Evaluation Report of Chinese Universities and Disciplines ” published by the China University Alumni Association for 3 consecutive years in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively. According to the “ 2018-2019 Ranking for the Administration Major ” released by the Network of Science & Education Evaluation in China , our undergraduate administration major is rated “5★-”, ranked 20th in the “China Universities Ranking for Undergraduate Majors” among the 273 colleges and universities in China that offer this major.

3. Public Affairs Administration

The discipline of public administration was awarded the first-level key discipline of the 12th Five-Year Plan of Chongqing Municipality in 2010 and the first-level key discipline of the 13th Five-Year Plan of Chongqing Municipality in 2017. In response to the needs of China’s economic and social development, by relying on the school’s two first-level master’s degrees in public administration and political science and combining the disciplinary advantages in teaching and scientific research in public crisis management and risk management, the discipline has, after years of continuous exploration and accumulation, gradually formed its specialization in social security and stability and public crisis management, and has become the supporting major in the Chongqing specialty disciplinary group “National Governance and Public Security”.

4. Social Work Major

As modern countries take as their development trend the diversity and innovation of social governance models, the importance and necessity of social work professionals has become increasingly evident. In recent years, responding to the booming market demand for social work personnel, the Central Government and various State ministries and commissions have issued a number of directives on professional social work education, the building of a social work workforce and the establishment of social work organizations. Relying on the SWUPL’s first-class discipline of law, the social work major cultivates social work talents who can provide relevant services, administration and research around judicial activities featured by judicial social work and supported by the advantageous disciplines of the School of Politics and Public Administration. The school focuses on the cultivation of undergraduates by setting up tutorial system, reading club and other supplementary teaching systems; emphasizes on practice teaching through extensive cooperation with the government, judicial organs, enterprises, institutions and social organizations to establish practice bases; encourages students to participate in social practice activities and establish their own organizations. After graduation, students, with their theoretical foundation and reading accumulation, are capable of working in government departments, judicial organs, enterprises and institutions, pursue further study, or establish their own social work institutions.