The history of the School of Civil Engineering at Yancheng Institute of Technology can be traced back to the Silicate Cement major of Yancheng Industrial College, a three-year vocational college, established in 1958. In 1985, the Industrial and Civil Architecture major was established. In 1996, it began enrolling undergraduate students in Civil Engineering, making it one of the first three undergraduate majors at Yancheng Institute of Technology. It was renamed Civil Engineering in 1998. Engineering Management and Water Supply and Drainage Science and Engineering majors were established in 2000 and 2004 respectively. In 2007, the Architecture major was established, which is the only five-year undergraduate major in YCIT. The Urban Underground Space Engineering major originated from the Civil Engineering major (Underground Engineering direction) established in 2008. In 2012, the Building Environment and Energy Application Engineering major was established. In 2021, the school was approved to offer a master's degree in Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, and in 2024, it was approved to offer a Master of Engineering Management (MEM) degree. Civil Engineering is a key discipline in Jiangsu Province's "14th Five-Year Plan(2021-2025)".
The school currently has 118 faculty and staff members, including 106 full-time teachers, 22 professors, 39 associate professors, 51 doctoral degree holders, and 31 master's supervisors. It boasts over 40 nationally registered engineers in civil engineering, including Class 1 Registered Structural Engineers, Class 1 Registered Architects, and Registered Geotechnical Engineers. The school has 2 Jiangsu Province Outstanding Teachers, 14 high-level talents from programs such as "333" and "Blue Project", 15 Jiangsu Province Innovation and Entrepreneurship talents, and 4 Jiangsu Province Industry Professors. The Construction Engineering teaching team is a Jiangsu Province Excellent Teaching Team, the Geotechnical and Underground Engineering teaching team is a " Blue Project" Excellent Teaching Team for Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, and the Coastal (Ultra) Soft Soil Ecological Treatment and Resource Utilization Science and Technology Innovation Team is an Excellent Science and Technology Innovation Team of Yancheng City.
The school currently offers 6 undergraduate majors: Architecture, Civil Engineering, Building Environment and Energy Application Engineering, Water Supply and Drainage Science and Engineering, Urban Underground Space Engineering, and Engineering Management.
The Civil Engineering major has three directions: Intelligent Construction, Building Engineering, and Transportation Civil Engineering. It is a national first-class undergraduate major, which has passed the Civil Engineering major assessment (certification) twice. It is also a national characteristic major, a pilot major for the Ministry of Education's "Excellence Plan", a Jiangsu Province brand major, a Jiangsu Province curriculum ideology and politics demonstration major, and a Jiangsu Province "Excellence in Engineering Plan 2.0" major. The Water Supply and Drainage Science and Engineering major has passed the professional assessment (certification) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development twice and has been approved as a national first-class undergraduate major. Engineering Management is a Jiangsu Province first-class major. Civil Engineering related majors are key specialty categories in Jiangsu Province.
The school has developed 3 national first-class undergraduate courses, 4 Jiangsu Province first-class undergraduate courses and online open courses, 1 Jiangsu Province industry-education integration first-class course, 1 Jiangsu Province curriculum ideology and politics demonstration course, and over 30 university-level courses. It has been awarded 6 Jiangsu Province teaching reform projects, over 30 Ministry of Education industry-university cooperation collaborative education projects, and one second-prize each for national and provincial teaching achievement awards. More than 20 textbooks have been published, including 8 Jiangsu Province key textbooks, 7 Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development planning textbooks, 1 provincial excellent cultivation textbook, and 1 provincial vocational education planning textbook.
Taking advantage of the Jiangsu coastal development strategy, the school has achieved a series of representative results in the fields of new materials and structures for civil engineering, soft soil treatment and underground space development, regional water environment and water pollution prevention and control, intelligent construction and operation and maintenance, focusing on urban infrastructure construction and tidal flat wetland resource development. In the past five years, the school has led 9 National Natural Science Foundation projects, over 50 provincial and ministerial-level projects such as Jiangsu Province Natural Science Foundation, Jiangsu Higher Education Natural Science Research Projects, Jiangsu Province Industry-University-Research Cooperation Projects, and Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Science and Technology Projects. It has published over 200 SCI and EI papers, been granted over 80 invention patents, received 23 provincial and ministerial-level science and technology awards, and secured over 60 million yuan in research funding. The school has established industry-education integration and university-enterprise cooperation relationships with China Railway No.4 Engineering Group Co., Ltd. Second Engineering Co., Ltd., China Railway Construction Group Co., Ltd. East China Branch, Jiangsu Renhe Zhongheng Group, Jiangsu Jinmao Construction Group, Yancheng Architectural Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd., and other companies, contributing to the infrastructure construction in the Yangtze River Delta and Jiangsu coastal areas.
Relying on the Jiangsu Coastal Transportation Infrastructure Smart Disaster Prevention Engineering Research Center and the Jiangsu Coastal Engineering Construction Provincial Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center, the school has established various laboratories including Surveying Laboratory, Material Mechanics Laboratory, Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Engineering Geology Laboratory, Geotechnical Laboratory, Structural Laboratory, Subgrade and Pavement Engineering Laboratory, Intelligent Construction Laboratory, Engineering Management Laboratory, Water Supply and Drainage Laboratory, Building Environment and Energy Application Engineering Laboratory, Building Physics Laboratory, and Architectural Model Room, as well as the Student Structural Innovation Center, BIM Training Center, and Civil Engineering Computer Rooms. The total value of equipment exceeds 33 million yuan, with a building area of 4,200 square meters. The school possesses provincial-level teaching and research platforms such as the Coastal Tidal Flat Ecology and Environment Provincial International Cooperation Joint Laboratory, Jiangsu Province New Environmental Protection Key Laboratory, and Jiangsu Province Straw Ecological Building Materials Engineering Center. It also has 5 city-level platforms including Yancheng Building Structure Whole Life Cycle Performance Improvement Engineering Technology Research Center, Yancheng Intelligent Construction Engineering Technology Center, and Yancheng Coastal City Low-carbon Construction Engineering Technology Research Center. The school has jointly established 3 Jiangsu Province Enterprise Postgraduate Workstations and has set up the Coastal (Ultra) Soft Soil Technology Research Institute, Coastal Structure Engineering Technology Research Institute, Civil Engineering Health Maintenance Technology Research Institute, and Smart Water Affairs Technology Research Institute.
The school recruits students from 31 provinces and municipalities across China, with currently over 2,100 undergraduate students enrolled. The school adheres to a student-centered approach, focuses on moral education, emphasizes academic atmosphere construction, promotes innovative practice, and aims for comprehensive development, striving to cultivate civil engineers with strong ethics and practical skills. In the past five years, students have won over 600 awards in national and provincial competitions such as the "Internet+" "Challenge Cup", National College Student Structural Design Competition, National College Student Energy Saving and Emission Reduction Competition, National College Student Advanced Mapping Competition, and National College BIM Graduation Design Innovation Competition. They have also obtained 135 College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Major projects (including 11 national-level projects) and 15 provincial excellent graduation design awards. 28 students have been recognized as national and provincial outstanding graduates. The comprehensive quality of graduates has been widely praised by employers, with an annual employment rate of over 95% and a graduate school admission rate of nearly 30%, consistently ranking at the forefront of YCIT.
The school has established extensive cooperative relationships with universities both at home and abroad. Scholars from renowned domestic universities such as Tongji University, Southeast University, Southwest Jiaotong University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hohai University, Yangzhou University, Nanjing Forestry University, and Jiangsu University of Science and Technology have visited the school. It has hosted domestic and international academic conferences such as the International Symposium on Advanced Composite Structures. The school has invited renowned experts such as Professor Xue Songtao, a foreign member of the Japan Academy of Engineering, Wu Chunying, a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, and Professor Miao Buquan from the University of Moncton, Canada, to guide the high-quality development of the school. The school has also established credit recognition and mutual diploma issuance programs with universities such as the University of Detroit Mercy in the United States, the University of Greenwich in the United Kingdom, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University in Lithuania, Gdansk University of Technology in Poland, and Gangneung-Wonju National University in South Korea.
