There is an abbreviation for "Shanghai Academy of Arts". The college is a University jointly built by the Ministry of culture and tourism of the people's Republic of China and the Shanghai Municipal People's government. It is one of the first batch of master's degree awarding units approved by the State Council, Doctoral degree awarding units, the first batch of pilot training units of art professional degree, national characteristic key discipline project construction universities, national construction high-level universities, public postgraduate project implementation universities, Shanghai foreign students government scholarship institutions, member of the World Federation of drama colleges and universities, and member of ITI / UNESCO International Federation of performing arts colleges and universities.The predecessor of Shanghai Academy of drama is Shanghai Municipal experimental drama school, which was founded on December 1, 1945. In October 1949, Shanghai Municipal experimental drama school was renamed Shanghai Municipal drama college. In 1952, colleges and universities across the country adjusted their departments. The drama department of the Art Department of Shandong University and the drama troupe of Shanghai Xingzhi art school were merged into the Academy, which was officially established and renamed as the East China branch of the Central Academy of drama. In 1956, it was officially named Shanghai drama academy, which is directly under the Ministry of culture. In April 2000, it was transferred to Shanghai and the Ministry of culture. In June 2002, the former school of performing arts of Shanghai Normal University was merged into Shanghai Opera School and Shanghai dance school.According to the information on the school's website in December 2018, Shanghai Academy of drama has four campuses: Huashan Road, Lianhua Road, Hongqiao Road and Pujiang road. The campus covers an area of 35.53 hectares, with a building area of 24625 square meters. There are 11 secondary teaching units, and two secondary technical schools, namely, the affiliated drama school and the affiliated dance school There are 2596 full-time students, including 1801 undergraduates. As of September 2016, there are 270 full-time teachers.