Harbin Institute of Technology

Located in the City of Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) is one of the northernmost universities of China (HIT has other 2 campuses, one in Weihai, Shandong Province and another in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province). Established in 1920 as the Harbin Sino-Russian School for Industry, the school was officially named the Harbin Institute of Technology in 1928, which has been used since then.

As a research university focused on science and engineering in China, HIT is a member of China's elite C9 League (the nine best universities in China), one of the national key universities included in the list of “Project 985” and “Project 211”, and one of the Universities with "Double First-Class" initiative (world-class universities and first-class disciplines) recognized by Chinese government in 2017. HIT was considered as the 6th in the Best Global Universities for Engineering by U.S. News in 2017. At present, HIT has 17 national key disciplines granted by Ministry of Education of China, 10 state key laboratories and 47provincial / ministerial-level key laboratories.

HIT has focused on the environment and ecosystem research in the cold north. The Arctic related researches include gas/particle partition in atmosphere and long-range transport of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), their pathways entering the Arctic, and their annual budgets and fate in the Arctic Ocean. In 2008-2010, HIT became a partner of Environment Canada working on an International Polar Year Projects (Intercontinental Atmospheric Transport of Anthropogenic Pollutants to the Arctic), and in January 2018, HIT established International Joint Research Center for Arctic Environment and Ecosystem (IJRC-AEE) along with other 10 renowned universities and institutes worldwide (including 1 Arctic member of UArctic), which will greatly strengthen the collaborations between the Arctic and non-Arctic universities and make significant contributions to the Arctic research.

Facts and figures

Web http://en.hit.edu.cn/
Year Established 1920
Total Number of Staff 5297
Number of Academic Staff 3043
Number of Students 49877
Focus Areas
  • Global emissions of POPs and their impact to the Arctic
  • Long-range transport via atmosphere and ocean of POPs to Arctic
  • Budget and fate of POPs in the Arctic Ocean
  • The impact of climate change to Arctic environment and ecosystem
Web link for international students http://en.hit.edu.cn/
Fields of Study Offered Humanities (broad programmes)
Foreign languages
Business and administration (broad programmes)
Biology and biochemistry
Environmental science
Life science (broad programmes)
Physics
Chemistry
Mathematics
Computer science
Mechanics and metal work
Electricity and energy
Electronics and automation
Materials (wood, paper, plastic, glass)
Architecture and building (broad programmes)
Transport services (broad programmes)
Environmental protection technology
Environmental protection (others)