Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) was founded in 1920. In 1951, it was designated as one of the two national model universities for its adoption of advanced foreign higher education practices. In 1954, HIT was among the first six institutions Since selected as one of the first six national key universities in 1954, HIT has received national key construction. In 1996, HIT was included in the initial batch of universities under the “Project 211”. In 1999, it was designated as one of the top nine universities prioritized for construction as world-class universities (the initial batch of “Project 985”). In 2017, HIT was selected as a Category A university in the “Double First-Class” initiative.

HIT is one of the earliest universities in China to offer graduate education. As early as the 1930s, the university began to admit graduate students. In 1949, with the guidance of Soviet experts, HIT established graduate classes and enrolled young teaching assistants and lecturers selected from major universities across the country to study graduate programs for teaching purpose. Since being approved as one of the initial batch of Graduate Schools in China (22 in total) in 1984, HIT has continuously deepened graduate education reform by following the international models, its enrollment scale and training quality have been continuously improved, and it has contributed a large number of outstanding talents for the national strategic needs and support the main fronts of national economic construction.

HIT currently has 9 national key first-level disciplines and 6 national key second-level disciplines. There are 36 doctoral degree authorization points in first-level disciplines and 39 master’s degree authorization points in first-level disciplines, covering a total of 7 categories of academic disciplines. Additionally, there are 8 doctoral professional degree categories and 20 master’s professional degree categories. HIT has 3,790 full-time faculty members, including 25 full-time academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and 1 foreign academician. Currently, there are 2,793 doctoral supervisors, 3,956 master’s supervisors, and 1,529 industry supervisors.

Throughout the development history of its graduate education, HIT has continuously innovated and reformed to cultivate the talents needed by the country. In 2003, it pioneered doctoral admission reform in China. In 2006, it was among the first batch to implement graduate training mechanism reform. In 2007, it took the lead in implementing a classified training model reform. In 2010, HIT was selected by the Ministry of Education as one of the initial batch of pilot units for the comprehensive reform of professional degree graduate education. In 2011, it was selected as one of the initial batch of universities authorized to award the professional engineering doctorates. In 2017, HIT was selected as one of the initial batch of universities with autonomous authorization for academic degrees (20 universities nationwide). In 2018, it was selected as one of the national pilot universities for doctoral education reform (14 universities nationwide). In 2022, HIT was designated as one of the initial batch of pilot institutions for a special reform program for cultivating the engineering master's and doctoral students. It also approved as one of the initial batch of National Institutes of Excellent Engineers (10 universities and 8 enterprises nationwide). In 2024, HIT took the national lead in establishing a Graduate Supervisor Development Center. In 2025, it took the lead in establishing the Chinese Union for Supervisor Development and the China-SCO Doctoral Student Training Innovation Center.

The graduate education at HIT consistently adheres to the principles of talent cultivation, aligns with the evolving needs of society, and places the utmost importance on the quality of talent cultivation, aiming to cultivate innovative top-notch talents with sound ideological and moral qualities, a strong sense of social responsibility, solid foundational theories and in-depth professional knowledge, a strong sense of innovation and innovation ability, as well as a broad international vision and active international communication skills. The cultivation process focuses on the comprehensive skill development, producing the graduates who not only have a solid foundation in basic knowledge and professional expertise but also demonstrate strong research capabilities, engineering practice skills, and innovation abilities, making them widely welcomed by employers. Graduate education at HIT adheres to an open approach, and established inter-university cooperation and exchange relationships with over a hundred universities in multiple countries and regions, facilitated academic exchanges, scientific research cooperation, and jointly cultivated the graduate students. Additionally, HIT enrolls master’s and doctoral students from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and the other countries.

Over the past 40 years, Graduate education at Harbin Institute of Technology has been dedicated to cultivating talents with ingenuity and striving for excellence, focusing on the goal of cultivating four types of outstanding talents—academic masters, engineering giants, industry leaders, and governance elites, it has actively explored a Chinese path toward world-class graduate education. The university has always been committed to educating talents for the Party and the country, advancing in close alignment with major national strategic needs. To date, it has awarded more than 21,000 doctoral degrees and over 120,000 master’s degrees, contributing a large number of outstanding talents to the Party and the country.

(Data as of January 2026)