The university is affiliated with the Shanghai Municipal Government and is co-sponsored by the city and the Ministry of Transportation of China.

Shanghai Maritime University is multidisciplinary with six fields of study: Engineering, Management, Economics, Literature, Science and Law.

The specialties of Customs Logistics, International Trade and Economics and Maritime Law are classified as Shanghai's key bachelor's degree disciplines for further development.

SMU has provided the shipping enterprises, public institutions and government departments with over 40,000 graduates.

Some of them are:[1] The school offers a MSc degree in International Transport and Logistics as a branch of the World Maritime University.