In the 1920s and 1930s, SJTU was crowned as the oriental MIT. Over the century, SJTU has fostered over 200,000 talents, spreading all over the world, among them famous statesmen like Jiang Zemin and China's Father of Space Technology Qian Xuesenﾣﾻ winners of State Top Scientific and Technological Award - mathematician Wu Wenjun, chemist Xu Guangxian and hematologist Wang Zhenyi. Over 200 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering are SJTU alumniﾣﾻ and of the 23 researchers of Atom bomb, Hydrogen bomb and Satellite who have been nationally commended, 6 are SJTU alumni.

    SJTU faculty, students and alumni have created many firsts in China's modern history in their own fields such as technology, education and medicine.Through 121 years' unremitting efforts, SJTU has become a comprehensive, research-oriented, and internationalized top university in China.In 2018 QS World University Ranking, SJTU ranked 62, the 4th among universities of mainland China.

     By December 2016, SJTU has had 28 schools/departments, 21 research institutions, 13 affiliated hospitals, 2 affiliated medical research institute, 12 directly affiliated units and 6 directly affiliated enterprises, with 16,195 undergraduates and 30,270 postgraduates (14,374 master degree candidates and 6,719 doctorate degree candidates)，2,401 overseas students. The university faculty includes 2,835 full-time teachers (among which 891 are professors), 22 members of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 24 members of Chinese Academy of Engineering.

     Up to now, SJTU has 64 undergraduate programs covering 9 major disciplines: economics, law, literature, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, management and arts.38 first-level disciplines authorized to offer doctorate degree covering 8 fields: economics, law, literature, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine and management; 56 first-level disciplines authorized to offer master degree covering all the 12 discipline fields.