SUS has outstanding faculty members, including about 600 full-time teachers. The top teachers and high-level talents who are gathered here have been honored with awards for their contributions to education from higher education to vocational education to basic education. SUS has international fellows of US National Academy of Kinesiology (NAK), an Independent Board Member of the International Testing Agency (ITA), a senior scientist of the Oregon Research Institute, a senior scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a former president of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), Shanghai Oriental Scholars, world champions, elite athletes as well as internationally renowned sport referees.

SUS actively promotes educational innovation by integrating sports with education. China Table Tennis College, the world’s only institution specialized in table tennis, has been recognized as the highest level training center (academy) by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). SUS has jointly established the IHF Academy with the International Handball Federation, and the Training Center with the International Association of Athletics Federations; the CBA Basketball Academy with the Chinese Basketball Association, China Marathon College with the Chinese Athletics Association, the Badminton College with the Chinese Badminton Association, the Gymnastics College of China with the Chinese Gymnastics Association, China Triathlon College with China Triathlon Sports Association. SUS serves as a reserve base for national high-level talents in middle-distance running. SUS has a national teaching demonstration center and a Shanghai teaching demonstration center. SUS has also cultivated many well-known coaches including Shi Zhihao, Sun Haiping, Chen Zhonghe, Wang Yuefang, Sun Li’an, Shen Fulin, and Ma Liangxing.  

SUS leads the way in academic innovation in the country. In recent years, SUS has obtained three awards for National Science and Technology Progress. As a leading university in national key projects of the Science and Technology in Winter Olympics and Being Healthy, SUS is the one and only sport university honored with Joint Institution of Science and Technology in China’s Winter Sports. The Journal of Sport and Health Science (JSHS), a world’s top-notch academic journal in sport sciences, is ranked second among the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) journals in the category of sport sciences, and first among the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) journals in hospitality, leisure, sport & tourism. JSHS is nominated for the fifth China’s publication government prize, and ranked first among China’s academic journals in humanities and social sciences with the most international influence. SUS possesses high level research platforms, including Shanghai Anti-doping Laboratory set up in the university, four key labs at provincial level, seven centers for social sciences at provincial level, one center for collaborative innovation in Shanghai and one cutting-edge center for research in science.

SUS provides high-quality services to the society. The University initiates the evaluation model for sport skills of China’s teenagers, the evaluation model for physical health index, and standards for sports skills of teenagers, which provide important guide for state’s reform and development in sports and educational assessment. The project of exercise and health masters has been highly appraised and included into national and Shanghai’s 14th Five-Year Plan for sport. The model of detoxification by exercising has been accepted and transformed to be national standards. SUS is home to a training center for the national three-person basketball and bob-skeleton teams. SUS has a key think tank in Shanghai and think tanks in Marxism theories and in Shanghai universities. SUS drafts some important documents including the a country strong in sports, the nationwide fitness-for-all campaign and national 14th Five-Year Plan for sporting development. The research center for sports and collaborative secretariat for sporting industry is set up at SUS in service to the high-quality development in the Yangtze River Delta. SUS provides service for the reform and opening up in Hainan by initiating an innovative institute of sporting industry in the free zone of Hainan. And SUS National Science & Technology Park is the only tech park in sporting university in China.

SUS makes efforts to build a model for carrying forward sports culture. SUS is home to the Institute for Olympic Studies and Research approved the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Table Tennis Federation Museum, the project first introduced from the international sports organization and constructed with China Table Tennis Museum, and the Chinese wushu museum, the world’s first museum to display the history and culture of wushu. Mr. WU Yunrui, the first president of our university, has been named as master in social sciences in Shanghai. SUS also houses the national first sport-themed bookstore and a museum of physical education and sport.

SUS creates a new development pattern in opening up. SUS is a designated Chinese Government Scholarship university and a pilot institution designated by China’s Ministry of Education to independently enroll international students available to Chinese government scholarships. By the end of 2022, SUS has established partnerships with 149 universities and organizations from 46 countries and regions, including 19 programs of mutual recognition of credits with the top 50 universities in the QS World University Rankings. More than 1,800 students from over 60 countries and regions, have learned at SUS. SUS has established the world's first ITA Academic Center in cooperation with the International Testing Agency, China Table Tennis College Europe with the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the SUS-UW Center in the US with the University of Wyoming, and the joint doctoral education program together with Vietnam's Bac Ninh Sport University. In the Macao Special Administrative Region of China, SUS has carried out the joint education at master and doctoral levels in sport sciences in cooperation with the Macao Polytechnic University.