The School of Civil Engineering was one of the earliest established in China. It was traced back to the Railway Construction Department of Harbin Sino-Russian Industry School in 1920’s. In 1950, the first batch of programs of Industry and Civil Architecture in China was established. In 1952, postgraduate students entered the contemporary leading programs in Structural Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology. The school was authorized to grant doctoral degree in Engineering Mechanics and Structural Engineering in 1981 and 1986 respectively. The two primary disciplines, Civil Engineering and Mechanics, enjoy great reputation across the country and respective post-doctoral research stations. In 2001, the discipline of Structural Engineering became the national key discipline. In 2002, the discipline of Engineering Mechanics became the national defense key discipline. As a whole, the programs of civil engineering and mechanics are ranked the third in both research progress and graduate education in China.

Currently, there are 150 faculty members. In particular, there are four academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, one professor who is the national reputed teacher, three Changjiang Scholars and more than ten overseas guest professors of Ph.D. supervisors. At present, a total of 1,630 students are enrolled in the school, including 920 undergraduate students, 420 master students, 290 doctoral students, 90 international students and 120 post-doctoral fellows.