The discipline of public management mainly relies on the construction of the Department of Public Management. The Department of Public Management was established in 1985 (formerly known as the Department of Administration), with the mission of cultivating public management talents who “make pioneering efforts to seek public interests and strictly pursue true knowledge”. In 1987, it edited the first series of Textbooks for Administration (a total of 14 books) in China; in 1988, it published the first series of administration translations -Translation of Administration and Civil Service System, which started the construction of the discipline of administration. In 2012, the discipline of administration was rated as a featured key discipline in Guangdong Province. In 2015, the “Public Welfare Innovation Talent Class” was set up, which is the earliest featured project to promote the training of undergraduate talents in public welfare innovation and entrepreneurship in China, and has been well received by the domestic charity education circles. In 2017, it was approved to launch a first-level master’s program in public administration. In 2019, the discipline of administration was approved as a national first-class undergraduate program. The Department has a complete system of talent training and discipline construction, and now operates an undergraduate program in administration, a first-level master’s program in public administration and a master’s program in public administration (MPA).

As of March 2023, the Department of Public Administration has a total of 20 active faculty members, including 5 professors, 8 associate professors and senior lecturers, and 7 lecturers and assistant professors. The teaching staff has a reasonable age structure, 60% of whom are the young and middle-aged teachers under the age of 45, with great potential for development. A number of teachers have won the title of talents at all levels, including 2 national MPA excellent teachers, 1 new century excellent talent under the Ministry of Education, 1 specially-appointed professor, 4 overseas high-level talents of Shenzhen, 4 high-level talents of Shenzhen, and 2 winners of President’s Teaching Award of Shenzhen University. In the past five years, the faculty of the Department have presided over one national major social science project, and more than 10 NSFC general projects and youth projects, NSSFCgeneral projects and research projects of the Ministry of Education, and published more than 100 papers in top and authoritative journals at home and abroad. The related achievements have won the Outstanding Achievement Award of Philosophy and Social Sciences in Guangdong Province and Shenzhen City for many times.

Focusing on the four disciplines, i.e., administration, public policy, urban governance, and social organization management, in the past five years, the Department of Public Administration has established a number of research bases, including Shenzhen University’s Research Center for the Development of the Cause of Persons with Disabilities in the Pilot Demonstration Zone of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics (key research base of China Disabled Persons’ Federation), Shenzhen University’s Greater Bay Area - ASEAN Research Center (key research base of humanities and social sciences in Shenzhen), Shenzhen University’s Institute of Governmental Affairs (jointly built with Government Offices Administration of Shenzhen Municipality), Shenzhen University’s Institute of Emerging Industries in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, etc., and has continuously accumulated advantages in the fields of government operation security management, technological innovation and industrial policy, megacity governance, disability policy and social entrepreneurship, actively contributing to the national strategy and the construction of “dual areas”.