Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) was established in 1920 in Harbin, Heilongjiang, China. In 1954, HIT became one of China’s first six leading universities.

Presently HIT is a member of China’s top nine University Union (C9). It is a National Key University with science and engineering as its core and has developed with management, liberal arts, economy, law and other disciplines. Renowned as “the cradle of engineers,” the university has many firsts. HIT established the first School of Astronautics in China. It was the first Chinese university to independently develop and enter small satellites (smallsats and microsats) into the moon’s orbit. HIT was also the first to achieve satellite ground laser communication link communications. Additionally, HIT developed the first computer to play chess and talk with people and it is the first university to produce arc- and spot welding robots. HIT was the first university to reveal the virulent factor of the HIV virus. It was also the first university to achieve a major breakthrough in supporting structure development for the largest radio telescopes. The first human–machine in orbit maintenance experiments on a space operator was also developed by HIT.

HIT offers 107 undergraduate, 41 master’s and 30 doctoral degree programs for its 55,000-plus students which are taught by over 4,000 full-time academic staff.

Together with Weihai campus and Shenzhen campus, HIT forms the pattern of “One University, Three Campuses.” HIT is steadily moving towards the goal of becoming a world-class university.