Department of Public Administration
Established in November 2003, the Department of Public Administration has laid a robust foundation and demonstrated dynamic vitality across various domains, including academic research, talent development, discipline construction, and consulting services. The department offers a range of academic programs, including a doctoral program in Public Administration, a postdoctoral program, and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) program. The department has been selected as one of the first pilot institutes for the secondary discipline of Emergency Management. It has earned national recognition for its Public Administration program and served as a designated site for constructing a national first-class undergraduate program. Two courses Policy Science and Public Administration have been selected as national first-class undergraduate courses. The department is staffed by 26 full-time faculty members, including 6 professors and 12 associate professors. Through years of dedicated effort and scholarly accumulation, the department has excelled in several critical research domains, such as public policy analysis, government reform and governance, public service and performance management, as well as social security and social governance. The discipline ranks among the top in all universities of China. Furthermore, the department hosts several significant research platforms, notably the Collaborative Innovation Center for Public Policy & Local Governance. The department has been honored to lead nearly a hundred influential scientific research projects at the provincial, ministerial and national level including the projects supported by the major programs of the National Social Science Fund and the Ministry of Education, and has provided expertise for over 400 decision-making consultancy projects. Its academic contributions include approximately a hundred monographs and textbooks, and a series of impactful academic papers published in prestigious journals such as Social Sciences in China, Chinese Public Administration, Management World, Public Performance and Management Review, and Public Administration Review. The quality of teaching and research has been recognized by several national and pr ovincial awards.
Department of Political Science
Founded in 1926, the Department of Political Science has a complete system of disciplines and a long tradition of learning and researching. The department has a national first-class undergraduate program in political science and public administration, a master's program, a doctoral program, and a postdoctoral programme in political science. With its achievements, it has been recognized as a key discipline in Fujian Province. It has formed a teaching and research team of 18 full-time teachers, including 10 professors and five associate professors. Besides, it has set up several provincial and ministerial research bases such as Xiamen University New Zealand Research Center and Center for National Governance Capacity Building. It has undertaken more than 50 projects of provincial and ministerial level or above including the projects supported by the major programs of the National Social Science Fund and the Ministry of Education, and it has won several provincial and ministerial awards for teaching and research achievements. Dozens of high-quality monographs and textbooks has been published. In addition, more than a hundred papers have also been published in authoritative journals at home and abroad, such as Social Sciences in China, CASS Journal of Political Science, World Economics and Politics, China Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, and Journal of Chinese Political Science. Based on the inheritance of state theory, it has been well-known in the fields of political thought and political culture, local government and social governance, state building and national unification, international security and global governance.
Master of Public Administration Education Center(MPA Center)
Xiamen University (XMU) is one of the institutions that initiated and demonstrated the Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree as well as the first to exploring new methods independently on MPA education in China. It is also one of the first 24 MPA pilot institutions inChina. In November 2006, Xiamen University passed the National Qualified Assessment of MPA Education with excellent results, and became one of the first universities in China to officially start MPA education. The Master of Public Administration (MPA) of Xiamen University was awarded Class A in the first national assessment of professional degree in 2018.
Since its first enrollment in October 2001, MPA education of XMU has fully implemented the Party's education policy, fostering virtue through education. Responding to the demand for the modernization of China's system and capacity for governance with Chinese characteristics for a new era, it has formed the talent cultivation mode of shaping value, imparting knowledge, cultivating capacities, and serving the needs of regional development and national strategies. On this basis, it has cultivated many high-level, high-quality, and specialized talents of public management.
Institute of Psychology
The Institute of Psychology at Xiamen University was established in 2013. With the support from the university and school leadership, the Institute of Psychology has made significant progress in recent years in faculty recruitment, academic research, and laboratory construction. The Institute of Psychologyhas eight full-time faculty positions, of which four have been filled, including one professor, one associate professor, and two assistant professors. Research areas include basic sensory processing, social cognition, risk decision-making, neural mechanisms of decision-making under stress, adolescent social development, and mental health. In terms of student training, the institute follows a "small but refined" graduate education model that emphasizes rigorous training and care. In 2016, the master's and Ph.D. programs in Cognitive and Public Service were established, with student enrollment starting in 2017. As of January 2024, there are nine graduate students and one Ph.D. student enrolled. The graduate training program places emphasis on interdisciplinary studies and encourages students to engage in collaborative research across different fields. The employment destinations for graduates primarily include government agencies, state-owned enterprises, and outstanding private companies. The available laboratories that are currently operational include the Cognitive Laboratory (with EEG, eye tracker), Simulation Laboratory (with 3D imaging, AnyLogic data collection system), Behavioral Laboratory, Observation Laboratory, and Research Data Collection Platform.