The College of Humanities and Law (College of Intellectual Property) of Shandong University of Science and Technology is a teaching and research institution centered on law, where literature, management, law, and education interpenetrate and develop together. It traces its origins to the Political Teaching and Research Section set up when the university was founded in 1951 and the Marxism-Leninism Teaching and Research Section established in 1958. These became the Department of Social Sciences in 1987 and the Department of Humanities in 1995. In January 2002, the College of Humanities and Law was founded. In December 2017, the university approved the establishment of the College of Intellectual Property, which is jointly administered with the College of Humanities and Law. In May 2023, the university established the College of Rural Revitalization, affiliated with the College of Humanities and Law.

The College offers undergraduate programs in Law, Law (with a specialized class in foreign-related legal affairs), Public Administration, and Chinese Language and Literature. It has a doctoral degree program in Resource and Environmental Protection and a master’s degree program in Law as a first-level discipline. It is authorized to confer professional master’s degrees, including the Juris Master (JM), Master of Intellectual Property (MIP), Master of Public Administration (MPA), and Master of International Chinese Language Education. It has one provincial key discipline and four provincial and ministerial research centers (laboratories).

The College currently has 755 undergraduate students, 329 full-time master’s students, and 299 part-time master’s students. It has 82 faculty and staff members, 42 of whom hold senior professional titles, and 64 faculty members hold doctoral degrees. Among the faculty are three provincial/ministerial-level talents, including a National Ethnic Affairs Commission Outstanding Young and Middle-aged Expert in Ethnic Studies, a Shandong Young Taishan Scholar, and one of the first batch of Shandong Leading Figures in Law and Legal Affairs; one Shandong Provincial Teaching Master; two Shandong Outstanding Graduate Supervisors; and four provincial-level research and innovation teams.

Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the College has undertaken one national-level teaching reform project and three provincial key teaching reform projects, and received five provincial or ministerial teaching achievement awards. It has been approved to host one Shandong legal practice teaching base and three Shandong joint graduate training bases. The Law program has been recognized as a national first-class undergraduate program; International Law as a national first-class undergraduate course; Social Survey and Traditional Chinese Culture as Shandong first-class undergraduate courses; and International Law and Environmental and Resource Law as provincial demonstration courses for integrating ideological and political education into teaching.

The College has undertaken more than 50 national and provincial or ministerial research projects, including key projects funded by the National Social Science Fund and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and five commissioned research projects each with actual funding of more than one million yuan. It has published more than 20 monographs and over 400 high-quality papers, and released six issues of the serial publication Digital Law Review. It has established three new municipal-level think tanks. More than 30 policy advisory proposals have received approving written comments from, or been adopted by, leaders at or above the municipal or departmental level, and the College has won more than 10 provincial or ministerial awards.

The College is committed to an open model of education. Through the Zhushan Forum, it has held more than 600 academic salons and lectures by distinguished scholars, and has hosted a number of national academic forums and professional competitions. It carries out academic exchanges and cooperative projects with more than ten universities and research institutions in other countries and regions, has enrolled and trained over 20 international students, and works with more than 80 domestic enterprises and institutions to jointly establish internship and practice bases.

The College upholds the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education and works to strengthen the quality of talent cultivation. Its Party Branch for Legal Education has been recognized as a “National Model Party Branch in Party Building.” One practice team received a letter of commendation from the Ministry of Education and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League; four practice teams were named National Outstanding Practice Teams; and students won 296 awards in national academic discipline competitions and 81 provincial-level awards. The rates of graduates pursuing further studies and finding employment have continued to rise.

Over the past three decades, the College has provided the country with nearly 10,000 outstanding graduates, and many distinguished alumni have emerged, represented by national and provincial-level talents, Party and government officials, and outstanding entrepreneurs.

At this new starting point, guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and fully implementing the decisions from the University’s 4th Congress of the Communist Party of China, the School adheres to its educational ethos: “Vibrant, Substantial and Harmonious School of Arts and Law”. It advances key initiatives including Party-building leadership, disciplinary excellence, teaching quality upgrading, faculty development, open integration, governance optimization and cultural nourishment, striving to open a new chapter of high-quality development.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   （Data as of October 2026）