The Division of Planning and Academic Development is an administrative department of the university and is a division-level institution. The Institute of Higher Education is a research institution directly under the university and is attached to the Division of Planning and Academic Development. The institute of Schooling Quality Evaluation which was affiliated to the Division of Planning and Academic Development is externally retained, with relevant evaluation administrative functions thereof being executed by the Division.

     The Division of Planning and Academic Development is under the leadership of the university’s party committee and the administration, being responsible of strengthening the university's centralized and unified leadership upon development planning, comprehensive reform and discipline construction. The number of division-level cadres is one for chief director and three for vice deputy director.

The main responsibilities are:

(1) Responsible for implementing the national education development strategy and planning, formulating and promoting the implementation of the overall development strategy of the university, medium and long-term planning, and other related work plans; participating in the organization and coordination of researching, formulating and implementing the program design of the university's various career development plans.

(2) Responsible for to formulating and promoting the implementation of the university’s comprehensive reform programs, conducting important reform research, policy consultation, policy formulation and implementation of established programs and designs.

(3) Responsible for revision and implementation supervision of the university’s constitution, participating in the review of the university’s important institutional documents, specifically responsible for the construction and supervision of implementing the university’s development plan and discipline construction schemes.

(4) Responsible for undertaking  the secretarial works of the office of Tongji University’s Leading Group of promoting the construction of world first-class university and first-class disciplines (denoted as "double first-class"), conducting researches on experience and patterns for  construction of world-class universities, implementing the national "double first-class" construction strategy, formulating and promoting the implementation of Tongji  University’s " double first -class " construction program.

(5) Being overall responsible for the "double first-class" construction budget declaration, process management, dynamic monitoring and summary acceptance, etc., specifically responsible for the approval of the "double first-class" construction funds, project approval and comprehensive performance evaluation of the use of funds, specifically responsible for Promote the implementation of the decision-making on the construction of first-class disciplines.

(6) Being responsible for researching and analyzing the status of university disciplines and majors, organizing research on discipline and professional construction, organizing research on the setting, adjustment, crossover and integration programs of disciplines and majors, and coordinating the autonomous addition and dynamic adjustment of disciplines and majors.

(7) Organizing and promoting the implementation of the university discipline construction planning. Organizing and guiding the drafting and revision of medium and long-term development plans of each discipline. Being responsible for the daily guidance, supervision and inspection of the construction of individual disciplines.

(8) Responsible for the declaration and construction of national and provincial-level discipline construction projects (including the construction of Shanghai "peak" and "plateau" disciplines).

(9) Being responsible for researching and analyzing the function and allocation of the school campus, and organizing the campus general plans and detailed regulatory plans.

(10) Responsible for researching and formulating the overall needs and principles of resource allocation in line with the university’s career development objectives. Collaborating in research on the university's resource situation and allocation and formulating relevant proposals.

(11) Responsible for school statistics and data management, comprehensive statistical work and special statistical audit, school development status monitoring and related data analysis.

(12) Responsible for coordinating the quality of university’s educational operation and discipline assessment, and organizing the quality assessment of college educational operation, organizing the assessment of discipline academic level. Promoting the international assessment of individual disciplines.

(13) Responsible for strengthening the contacts with relevant business departments and bureaus of the national Ministry of Education, the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and other institutions for relevant support.

(14) Other works assigned by the university.