In 1920, the Harbin Institute of Technology was originally established as the Harbin Sino-Russian School for Industry to educate railway engineers.[4]
In 1931, postgraduate students were enrolled from the spring of 1931.
In 1935, during the Japanese invasion of China, the university fell under Japanese control.
On January 1, 1938, the name Harbin Institute of Technology was reinstated, which it has retained until the present.
In 1945, after the Japanese defeated in World War II and evacuated, HIT was headed by the Zhongchang Railway Bureau and jointly managed by China and the Soviet Union.
In 1949, Harbin Institute of technology recruited graduate students from all over the country. It is one of the earliest institutions to train postgraduates in China.
In 1951, HIT was approved by the central government to become one of the two institutions of higher learning to learn advanced techniques from the USSR. HIT enjoyed a reputation as the 'Cradle for Engineers'.
In 1984, HIT became one of 15 national major investment universities of China. In 1984, HIT became one of the first 22 universities to establish a graduate school.
In 1998, HIT was among the first 9 universities to be invited to join the Project 985 Club (a Chinese higher education system that provides funding priority to 39 leading research comprehensive universities).
In 2000, Harbin Institute of Technology merged with Harbin University of Architecture, one of the famous eight old schools in China with the same roots, and formed a new Harbin Institute of Technology.
In 2012, HIT was listed in the Universities and Colleges Innovation Promotion Plan (高等学校创新能力提升计划), the most recent national advanced innovation alliance.
In 2013, the results of the third round of discipline assessment were announced. The school has 16 first-level disciplines ranked in the top five in the country, and 25 disciplines rank among the top ten in the country; among them, the first-level discipline of mechanics ranks first in the nation.
In 2017, HIT was ranked as Class A (top tier) university in the Double First-Class Construction, the most recent elite Chinese universities program.[2]
In 1985 HIT established a new campus in Weihai; then in 2000 Harbin University of Architecture merged into HIT in Harbin. In 2002 HIT found a new graduate school in Shenzhen. These three campuses form the Greater HIT structure.
Harbin Main Campus: located in the heavy industrial base area of China, specializes in engineering and especially defense, aerospace, mechanical, civil, environmental, and material engineering.
Weihai Campus: based in the national high-tech park of China, offers courses in science and technology and especially marine science, chemistry, biotechnology, automotive, software, computer, and management.
The institute's main building is a smaller version of the main building of the Lomonosov Moscow State University with the majority of the buildings constructed during the time of Sino-Soviet friendship from 1949 to 1959 when the Soviet Union were actively involved in the development of Northeast China.
The School of Architecture is located on No.66 of XiDazhi Street, near the Main Building. It originally belonged to HIT; however, when HIT was divided into three institutes in 1959, it was used by the Harbin Architectural and Civil Engineering Institute. After the integration of Harbin University of Architecture (formerly Harbin Architectural and Civil engineering Institute) into HIT, the building was renamed the "Civil Building", although it houses the school of architecture.
The No.2 campus in Harbin was originally a campus of the Harbin University of Architecture. All undergraduate students have spent their first year at this campus since 2003. School shuttles between two campuses are provided free of charge.
The campus, along with the picturesque scenery and mild climate, adjoins the sea (Golden Beach) and is surrounded by mountains. It is ranked in the best 50 universities in satisfaction degree in China.[6] It now covers totally 1,560,000 square metres (16,800,000 sq ft), with a construction area of 383,000 m2 (4,120,000 sq ft).
HIT, Weihai now has 10 schools and 1 department, 10,466 undergraduate students, 542 master students, 110 Ph.D. candidates, 89 international students, and 861 staff members, including 97 professors and 219 associate professors. HIT, Weihai provides 37 bachelor programs and shares HIT's 22 master programs and 18 doctoral programs, with the same HIT educational standards. Complementing to the Harbin campus, HIT, Weihai has developed with the characteristic disciplines such as Marine Science and Ocean Engineering, Automotive Engineering, and the highlights in the domains of Advanced Manufacturing, Information Technology and Electric Engineering, Computer Science and Software Engineering, Material Science and Engineering.[7]
Along with Tsinghua University and Peking University's graduate schools, the HIT Shenzhen Graduate School occupies 0.17 square kilometres (0.066 sq mi) of space within Shenzhen University Town. The Shenzhen Campus covers a total floor space of 73,700 square metres (793,000 sq ft) including teaching, research, administration, conference centers, student housing, and cafeteria. Additional space of approximately 53,500 square metres (576,000 sq ft) is under construction.
Harbin Institute of Technology is organized into 20 full-time schools, which hold 73 undergraduate degree programs, 143 master programs, and 81 doctorate programs. Though most of HIT's schools focus on science and engineering, several schools offer courses in humanities, social sciences, and management. HIT does not have agriculture or medical school.
HIT operates on a year-round schedule that includes both a fall, a spring, and a summer semester. Winter and summer holidays are scheduled to occur between semesters. During vacation periods, the dormitories and select dining halls remain open for students.
The Harbin campus of HIT offers 86 undergraduate degrees across its eighteen schools along with 41 master programs, 29 doctoral programs and 24 post-doctoral research programs.[8][9][10]
School of Architecture
School of Astronautics
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
School of Civil Engineering
School of Computer Science and Technology
School of Economy and Management
School of Electrical Engineering and Automation
School of Electronics and Information Engineering
School of Energy Science and Engineering
School of International Studies
School of Life Science and Technology
School of Marxism
School of Material Science and Engineering
School of Mechatronics Engineering
School of Transportation Science and Technology
School of Science
School of Environment
School of Humanities, Social Science & Law
As of 2019, there were 15,675 undergraduate students, 6,518 doctoral students and 9,680 master graduate students at the Harbin campus, including 1,984 international students from 128 countries and regions.[11]
Nationally, HIT is consistently ranked among China's top-10 research comprehensive universities and ranked No.1 in Northeast China region,[23] which includes the province of Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang with a combination of more than 100 million population.[24]
HIT was ranked 10th in China and 158th worldwide in 2023 in terms of aggregate performance from the three most widely observed university rankings (THE+ARWU+QS) as reported by the Aggregate Ranking of Top Universities.[25]
Internationally, HIT is regarded as one of the most reputable Chinese universities by the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings where it ranked 101th globally.[30] HIT graduates are highly desired worldwide, with its Graduate Employability rankings placed at # 143 globally in the 2021 Global Employability University Ranking by Times Higher Education.[31]
Research at Harbin Institute of Technology spans a broad range of topics with a strong focus on engineering sciences.[32] HIT has been ranked in the top 10 Best Global Universities for Engineering by the U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities Ranking since the ranking’s inception in 2014 by the US News & World Reports.[32][33] As of 2024, it is ranked 3rd globally in Engineering.[34]
Regarding scientific research output, the Nature Index 2023 ranked HIT the No.37 university in the Asia Pacific region, and 87th in the world among the global universities.[36] The 2023 CWTS Leiden Ranking ranked HIT 18th in the world by total publications and 30th in the world based on the number of their scientific publications belonging to the top 1% in their fields for the time period 2018–2021.[37]
HIT completed the "Large-Size Vacuum Container Ground Simulation Equipment" project, an important national scientific research project.[citation needed]
Harbin Institute of Technology has a high-level research faculty with over 2,900 full-time teachers and researchers, including 1,950 professors and associate professors, 41 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, nearly 640 doctoral supervisors. It has 12 principal scientists working on Projects 973 and 13 "Young Experts with Prominent Contributions to the Country".
With a strong emphasis on scientific research, HIT has been bold and innovative in its scientific research and has consistently undertaken large-scale and highly sophisticated national projects. Because of this, funding for research increases yearly. In 2018, the total research funding from the government, industry, and business sectors reached 3.76 billion RMB yuan (about 537 million US dollars). The Harbin campus owned 3.2 billion yuan, the Shenzhen campus owned 443 million yuan, and the Weihai campus owned 132 million yuan. Some media reported that the total research expenditures of HIT reached 7.47 billion RMB yuan (about 1.07 billion US dollars) in 2019.
Its faculty and students have invented many 'firsts' in China: the first analog computer in 1957, the first digital computer in 1958, the first intelligent chess computer, the first arc welding robot, the first world-class new system radar, the first ICCMOS chip with its own copyright, the first superway, computer real-time 3D image creation system, and the first high-performance computer controlled fiber twister.[39][40] HIT undertakes research covered by official secrets (e.g. in space science and defense-related technologies).[41][42] It made the largest contribution to the success of the Shenzhou series spacecraft and Kuaizhou series spacecraft.[43][44] One minor planet (#55838) is named after the Harbin Institute of Technology and nicknamed "Hagongda Star" by the International Astronomical Union for HIT's achievements in science and engineering.[45][46]
