On June 7, 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) on its 100th anniversary. The letter noted that HIT has a long history. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, under the leadership of the Party, the university has taken root in Northeast China, dedicated itself to the country, and worked diligently to build a large number of national strategic assets and cultivate a large number of outstanding talents, making significant contributions to the Party and the people. He expressed hope that HIT, at this new starting point, would adhere to the socialist direction of education, focus on the fundamental task of cultivating virtue and talent, and continuously reform and innovate, strive for excellence, and pursue progress in teaching, research, and other work, making new and greater contributions to achieving the "Two Centenary" Goals and the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Guided by the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter, all members of the HIT community are striving to create a new century of excellence characterized by Chinese features, world-class standards, and the high standards of HIT itself.
Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, was founded in 1920. In 1951, it was designated as one of the two model universities nationwide for learning from foreign higher education models. In 1954, it was among the first six universities selected for key national development and is known as the "cradle of engineers." In 1996, it was included in the first batch of universities in the national "211 Project," and in 1999, it was designated as one of the first nine universities in the national "985 Project." In 2000, it merged with Harbin University of Architecture, which shared the same roots, to form the new HIT. In 2017, it was selected as a Class A university in the "Double First-Class" initiative, and in 2022, eight of its disciplines were selected for the new round of the "Double First-Class" initiative.
The university boasts 9 national key first-level disciplines and 6 national key second-level disciplines. In the third round of discipline evaluation by the Ministry of Education, 10 of the university's first-level disciplines ranked among the top five in the country, with mechanics ranking first nationwide. In the fourth round of national discipline evaluation, Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) had 17 disciplines ranked in Category A, ranking sixth nationwide in the rate of excellent disciplines (the proportion of Category A disciplines among authorized disciplines), eighth nationwide in the number of Category A disciplines, and second nationwide in the number of Category A disciplines in engineering. Currently, it has 23 full-time academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 434 individuals selected as national high-level talents, and 448 individuals selected as national young talents. It was awarded the State Supreme Science and Technology Award in 2018.
Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) Weihai Branch was established in 1985 and renamed Harbin Institute of Technology (Weihai) (HIT Weihai Campus) in 2002. In 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Shandong Province, and the Weihai Municipal People's Government signed an agreement to jointly develop the HIT Weihai Campus. In 2014, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Oceanic Administration signed an agreement to jointly develop HIT's naval architecture and marine engineering disciplines. In 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Shandong Provincial People's Government, and the Weihai Municipal People's Government renewed the agreement to jointly develop the HIT Weihai Campus. In 2020, HIT and the Weihai Municipal People's Government signed an agreement to deepen university-local government cooperation under the theme of "Focusing on the Construction of a Refined City and a First-Class University."
The Weihai Campus is an important part of Harbin Institute of Technology's (HIT) three-campus structure, located in the beautiful and livable coastal city of Weihai. For forty years, the Weihai Campus has adhered to the fundamental principle of talent cultivation, focusing on the ocean, serving Shandong Province, expanding national defense, reaching out internationally, and serving the main battlefield of the national economy. Upholding HIT's motto of "Being strict in qualifications for graduates; making every endeavor in educating students," and adhering to the requirements of "unified standards, unified specifications, unified requirements, unified quality, and unified brand" across the three campuses, the Weihai Campus has contributed significantly to the university's accelerated progress towards becoming a world-class university.
The Weihai Campus currently has approximately 14,000 full-time students, including undergraduates, master's students and doctoral candidates. It comprises 10 schools, 1 residential college and 1 Basic Education Department.It boasts 26 national-level first-class undergraduate programs, among which Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering and Vehicle Engineering are led by the campus; it has 25 doctoral programs and 24 master's programs, including the doctoral program in Marine Science and the master's program in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, both led by the campus; and it has 8 key disciplines in Shandong Province, with Marine Science selected as a high-level discipline in Shandong Province.
The Weihai campus upholds HIT's tradition of Party building and ideological-political work characterized by "political guidance, model inspiration, brand influence, and education through the university motto." It has vigorously advanced the deep integration of Party building with the university's central endeavors, leveraging high-quality Party building to steer high-quality development. In the course of the Party Building "Double Creation" Initiative, a number of advanced collectives and individuals have emerged, including 2 national "Model Party Branches" recognized in the Party Building "Double Creation" Initiative, 1 national special action team for university faculty Party branch secretaries who are "leaders in both professional work and Party building" under the "Strengthening the Nation Campaign," 2 provincial-level "Benchmark Departments" and 5 provincial-level "Model Party Branches" honored in Shandong Province's Party Building "Double Creation" Initiative. Young talents have been fostered to grow rapidly into high-caliber personnel at the national and provincial-ministerial levels. A large number of advanced models have also come to the fore, such as delegates to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, recipients of the National Innovation and Pioneer Award, National May 1st Labor Medal and National May 1st Women's Pace-setter Award, "Most Beautiful Teachers in Qilu," and role models selected in Shandong Province's "Role Model Discovery" Campaign.
The Weihai campus boasts a highly ethical, well-structured, and dynamic faculty, with 10 academicians holding research platforms and working teams on campus. The campus vigorously cultivates a positive teaching ethos of "valuing teaching, reflecting on teaching, excelling in teaching, and enjoying teaching." In recent years, the faculty has won one first prize and one second prize in the National Teaching Achievement Awards, two special prizes, three first prizes, and six second prizes in the Shandong Provincial Teaching Achievement Awards. The Materials Science and Engineering faculty team and the Marine Engineering faculty team have both been selected as "Huang Danian-style Teacher Teams" in Shandong Province.
The Weihai Campus steadfastly adheres to the socialist orientation of running schools, fulfills the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, upholds HIT's time-honored school motto "Being strict in qualifications for graduates; making every endeavor in educating students," follows the "Five Unifications" talent cultivation standards, and focuses on the goal of nurturing four types of outstanding talents. It has established seven residential colleges, namely Spruce College, Elegant Lotus College, Sycamore College, Pine College, Bamboo Virtue College, Crabapple College and Lilac College, and was selected as a National Demonstration "One-Stop" Student Community in 2025. The Campus has built a full-field, full-chain "comprehensive ideological and political education" system centered on patriotic education, and was named among the first batch of "Red Culture Inheritance and Demonstration Universities" in Shandong Province. Its Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base has been recognized as a Shandong Provincial Demonstration Platform for College Students' Entrepreneurship. It has incubated more than 100 influential college student innovation and entrepreneurship teams at home and abroad, and won numerous gold awards in national Category A competitions such as the China International College Students' Innovation Competition and the "Challenge Cup" National College Students' Extracurricular Academic and Technological Works Competition. These achievements have provided a crucial contribution to HIT's attainment of the "six consecutive championships" in national university student competitions. The GW-HRT Racing Team has won the national championship seven times, claimed the double championship twice in both the Formula Student China and Baja SAE China competitions, and was awarded the honorary title of National College Students' "Xiaoping Science and Technology Innovation Team." The Campus vigorously guides its graduates to dedicate themselves to the places where the motherland needs them most. A total of over 60,000 outstanding alumni, represented by National Model Workers, recipients of the China Youth May Fourth Medal and Pioneers of the New Era, have become the backbone of the drive for advancing Chinese modernization.
Centering on national major strategic needs and disciplinary frontiers, the Weihai Campus vigorously advances organized scientific research and steadily promotes the development of distinctive disciplines such as vehicle, vessel and marine engineering. It has co-established China’s first offshore comprehensive test site in shallow seas, and taken the lead in building more than 30 provincial and ministerial-level scientific research platforms, including the Key Laboratory of Maritime Monitoring and Information Processing, the Key Laboratory of Cross-domain Collaboration and Integrated Support for Marine Unmanned Systems (both under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology), and the International Joint Research Center for Marine Engineering Materials and Advanced Processing Technology. In recent years, the campus has won 2 First-class Awards for National Scientific and Technological Progress, 2 Second-class Awards for National Technological Invention, 3 Second-class Awards for National Scientific and Technological Progress, as well as 32 provincial and ministerial-level awards. It has taken the lead in securing 4 projects under the National Key R&D Program, and successfully launched the "Weihai-1" 01/02 satellites—the first domestic integrated communication and remote sensing satellite constellation dedicated to marine target detection and identification. Nine faculty members have been listed among the world's top 2% scientists, and one has been selected as a recipient of the inaugural Mao Yisheng Outstanding Highway Engineer honor.
Centering on national strategies and the needs of regional economic and social development, the Weihai Campus has continuously deepened its cooperation with local governments and enterprises, promoted the in-depth integration of the innovation chain, industrial chain, capital chain and talent chain, and achieved remarkable results in the transformation of scientific research achievements. It has built the HIT Weihai Innovation and Entrepreneurship Park, which has become one of the four major platforms of the National (Weihai) Regional Innovation Center, gathering more than 600 high-end scientific and technological talents and incubating over 60 high-tech companies. The campus has also established the HIT (Weihai) Qingdao Innovation and Development Base, built an integrated innovation center for education, science, technology and talents, and created a two-way engine for the high-quality development of the university and the local community. It has established university-local cooperation relations with Jinan, Weifang, Zibo, Binzhou and other cities, maintained close cooperation with more than 300 leading enterprises in Shandong Province including Haier, Weigao and Weichai, and continuously made solid commitments to supporting Shandong Province in "taking the lead and shouldering important responsibilities" and the construction of "a refined city and a happy Weihai."
Looking ahead, the Weihai Campus will always adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and be guided by the spirit of the Congratulatory Letter sent by General Secretary Xi Jinping on the 100th anniversary of Harbin Institute of Technology's founding. It will uphold the principles of following objective laws, upholding fundamental principles while pursuing innovation, forging ahead with passion and striving for excellence, steadily advance reforms in key areas such as talent cultivation, faculty development, scientific research and internal governance, and work with great dedication to make new contributions on its new journey toward becoming a world-class university at the forefront.
