Sun Yat-sen University adheres to the direction of running a school in Socialism with Chinese characteristics, adheres to the fundamental principle of moral education, takes "having both ability and political integrity, leadership temperament and feelings for home and country" as the training goal, and takes "facing the academic frontier, facing the country's major strategic needs, and facing the national and regional economic and social development" as the basic orientation, and establishes the development idea of "three campuses and five campuses" with dislocation development and common support.

The school is working hard to promote the transformation from extensional development to connotative development, from conventional development to active development, and from the advantages of arts and sciences to the integration of arts and medical characteristics.