About HIEHunan Institute of Engineering, built by the Hunan Government, is located in Xiangtan, Hunan Province, the hometown of the great man Mao Zedong. It is a pilot university for postgraduate education of the Ministry of Education's "National Talent Training Program for Special Needs", and the first batch of the "Excellent Engineers Education and Training Program" and the "New Engineering Research and Practice Project" implemented by the Ministry of Education. It is authorized to confer Master's degree in Hunan Province and selected into the “2011 Plan” universities. HIE follows the “Double First-Class” initiative and becomes the model to build the high-level application-oriented university with comprehensive characteristics. It is among the first-batch universities for undergraduate admission in Hunan Province.
HIE was established in June 2000 by merging the former Xiangtan Mechanical and Electrical College (founded in 1951, under the former Ministry of Machinery Industry, and is a national demonstration college for higher engineering education), Hunan Textile College (founded in 1978, under the former Hunan Textile Industry Department). From 1958 to 1963, "Xiangtan Electrical Engineering College", the former Xiangtan Mechanical and Electrical College, had five years of undergraduate education.
In 2000, HIE took the lead to establish an application-oriented undergraduate education college among local universities across the country, featuring engineering application-oriented talent training system. HIE is the deputy leader of the National Engineering Application-oriented Undergraduate Education Cooperation Group, the deputy director of the Special Committee of Application-oriented Undergraduate Colleges under the National College Teaching Research Association, and the director of the Textbook Editing Committee of Application-orientation Talents Training for General Higher Education, the deputy director of the School-Enterprise Alliance of National Excellent Engineering Education, the director of the Application-oriented Universities Sub-committee under China Education Association for International Exchange and the deputy director of the Hunan Cooperative Group for New Engineering Construction in Universities and Colleges. In 2007, it passed the undergraduate teaching proficiency evaluation conducted by the Ministry of Education with excellent results; in 2018, it passed the teaching review and evaluation by the Ministry of Education.
The school has two campuses, the main campus and the south campus. The campus covers an area of 1,806 mu with a building area of 540,000 square meters. The main campus is adjacent to the Xiangjiang River, sitting on the Muyu Lake with beautiful landscapes. It is a "garden-style", "highly civilized university" and “civilized campus” in Hunan Province.
HIE meets the development needs of the regional economy and the electronics, machinery and textile industries. With the goal of cultivating high-quality application-oriented talents, HIE offers professional undergraduate programs in electronics, machinery, textile, chemistry and management, covering engineering, management, arts, science, economics and other disciplines. It now has 19 schools (departments, centers), 59 undergraduate programs, and 2 engineering master’s degree authorization programs. HIE has 8 application-oriented discipline construction programs following the "Double First-Class" initiative at the provincial level; 8 subjects for implementing the "Excellence Program" of the Ministry of Education; 8 national and provincial characteristic subjects; 6 subjects as the national comprehensive subject reform pilots; 2 first-level disciplines at national level and 22 at the provincial level. The following three subjects have passed engineering education certification evaluation: Mechanical Design, Manufacturing and Automation; Electrical Engineering and Automation; Chemical Engineering and Technology. HIE has 4 national practical education platforms; 1 national scientific innovation team for college students; 32 provincial platforms for innovation and entrepreneurship; 25 province-level excellent practice bases and demonstration bases to train talents for industry-university cooperation; 139 industry-university cooperative education projects supported by the Ministry of Education; 1 national-level first-class undergraduate course; 11 province-level high-quality courses, 32 provincial-level first-class undergraduate courses and 9 provincial-level virtual simulation experiment centers and demonstration laboratories (centers). The metalworking practice base, designated by the Ministry of Education, is a training and examination center for metalworking teaching instructors in colleges and universities.
HIE adheres to the program of strengthening the school with talents. There are 1265 faculty members, including 1,090 full-time teachers and 399 professional-title teachers. The college has 942 teachers with doctoral and master's degrees, and 171 doctoral and master's supervisors. There are prominent teachers and research teams, including: 3 national model (excellent) teachers; 8 recipients of special government allowances of the State Council and the Hunan government; 3 reputed as New Century Excellent Talents in support programs of the Ministry of Education; 6 members of the Professional Teaching Committees under the Ministry of Education and the Department of Education; 12 provincial model and excellent teachers;14 provincial academic leaders; 88 province-level talents with such titles as “Huxiang High-level Talent”, provincial "Hundred Talents Program" and provincial "New Century 121 Talents Project"; 9 provincial teaching teams and scientific innovation teams.
HIE actively advocates scientific research, vigorously promotes technological innovation and constantly improve social serving capabilities. It has 24 province-level scientific research platforms, including the provincial "Project 2011" collaborative innovation center and the provincial key laboratories; 1 provincial base for the cooperation between colleges and local governments; and 3 provincial demonstration bases for the industrial-academic-research cooperation. In recent five years, HIE has undertook 33 scientific research projects such as national key research and development plan project and the National Natural Science Foundation project; 305 provincial and ministerial scientific research projects; 1007 horizontal scientific research projects, with a total research funding of 490 million Yuan; received 32 scientific research awards (including 16 at provincial and ministerial level); authorized 569 invention patents; published 2843 high-level academic papers and 35 academic monographs. It has vigorously strengthened industry-academic-research cooperation and has successively carried out cooperation with 546 enterprises, generating economic benefits of more than 12 billion yuan.
HIE persistently follows the opening-up strategy and constantly conducts foreign exchanges and international cooperation. It is one of the first colleges in Hunan Province to start Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. Until now, it has cooperated with more than 30 universities in over 20 countries including the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany, and has opened two international cooperative programs for undergraduate education. In 2019, it has launched education for international students and recruited international students from countries along the “Belt and Road”.
HIE always strikes to the spirit of focusing on the specific of Hunan, catering to the whole country, and promoting regional economic and industrial development. With 70 years of engineering education experience, 21 years of exploration and practice of training application-oriented undergraduate talents, 11 years of thoroughly implementing the "Excellence Plan" and 10 years of professional degree graduate education, HIE has cultivated more than 180,000 high-quality talents for the machinery, electronics, engineering and textile industry to construct national economy.
In the future, adhering to its motto of "Making Steady Efforts, Dare to Be the First" and the style of "Be United, Serious, Honest and Innovative in the Pursuit of Knowledge", under the guidance of President Xi Jinping’s socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, implementing the spirit of the 4th Party Congress, HIE will shoulder the fundamental task of strengthening morality and cultivating talents, adopt the application-oriented teaching style centering on high-quality education, excellent talents and distinctive models, unswervingly implement the new development concept themed on promoting high-quality development, take reform and innovation as its fundamental driving force, and insist on establishing the school by quality, strengthening the school with talents, and revitalizing the school with characteristics. It will comprehensively promote the college’s development, persistently follow the "Double First-Class" initiative and vigorously strengthen the construction of new engineering disciplines, continuously improve the quality of talent training, advocate scientific innovation and strengthen social serving abilities, and strive to build a high-level engineering application-oriented university with distinctive characteristics in all respects.
(May 2021）
