Centering on the needs of national projects and based on the foundation and distinctive advantages of the first-level discipline of Public Administration, the school optimizes its discipline layout and mechanism for program adjustment. It has refined six key disciplinary directions to ensure the quality of program development.

Public Administration, a fundamental second-level discipline, focuses on public administration and government governance innovation in the context of Chinese modernization. With addressing major national and local governance issues as its core, it advances government reform by leveraging big data, and prioritizes research on government governance reform under the new development paradigm, public policy innovation oriented toward sustainable development, and digital governance and integrity governance.

Educational Policy and Management supports the high-quality development of education. It integrates interdisciplinary theories to build a platform for higher education governance, and conducts research on the modernization of university governance from the perspective of building a powerful education nation, quality assurance of graduate education, and innovation in outstanding engineering education.

Social Security focuses on enhancing people's well-being. It integrates interdisciplinary knowledge and modern technologies, and establishes a social security system through multi-stakeholder collaboration. Its research areas include the construction of social security systems, innovation and international comparison of social security policies, and the development of smart social security in the intelligent society.

Emergency Management, a "priority discipline" designated by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, explores emergency mechanisms for balancing development and security, safety risk decision-making in key fields, and governance of major emergencies and the environment under the "dual carbon" goal by integrating advanced technologies.

Cultural Communication and Management, the only self-established interdisciplinary direction in the humanities field of the university, aligns with national cultural projects. It conducts research on political communication in the context of building a powerful cultural nation, the transformation and dissemination of fine traditional Chinese culture, and the public cultural service system to boost cultural confidence.

Public Economics and Management serves macroeconomic management and public sector financial management. Its research focuses on the reform of public economic systems under the new development philosophy, public finance and tax management with Chinese characteristics, and financial supervision and risk governance.