The School of Transportation Science and Engineering is one of China’s earliest institutions dedicated to cultivating transportation professionals. Its origins can be traced back to the Railway Construction Division of the Harbin Sino-Russian Industrial School in 1920. The Road Engineering program was established in 1958, followed by the official founding of the School of Transportation Science and Engineering in 1995. The school offers a comprehensive academic structure, including a Master's program in Road and Railway Engineering (1986), Doctoral programs in Road and Railway Engineering (1998), Bridge and Tunnel Engineering (1998), Transportation Planning and Management (2006), a Doctor of Engineering in Transportation Engineering (2010), and a Professional Doctorate in the field of Transportation (2019). In the Best Chinese Majors Ranking of 2025 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Traffic Equipment and Control Engineering program A+, Road, Bridge & River-Crossing Engineering program A, Transportation Engineering program A.

The school engages in extensive international collaboration with world’s top universities, having established strategic partnerships with over 40 prestigious institutions globally. including HIT-UIUC Overseas Academic Base in the United States, a comprehensive strategic agreement with RWTH Aachen University in Germany, and an overseas practical training base established in cooperation with China Road & Bridge Corporation. The school has also built an international faculty team, recruiting 10 foreign academicians from countries such as Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and Russia, along with three guest professors from Germany.

Over its century-long development, the school has continuously enhanced its educational quality, with its talent pool and research capabilities now recognized as first-class in China. It has become a key base for cultivating top innovative talent in the transportation field. The school offers four undergraduate programs, including Road, Bridge & River-Crossing Engineering program, Transportation Engineering program, Traffic Equipment and Control Engineering program, Intelligent Transportation program (a newly added program). All these programs except Intelligent Transportation program have been approved as National First-Class Undergraduate Major.

The school has assembled a high-caliber, interdisciplinary academic team led by distinguished scholars and supported by mid-career and young researchers. It currently includes three national high-level experts and seven national young talents. Research at the school emphasizes cold-region area and integrates fundamental research with technological innovation. It has received eight National Science and Technology Progress Awards equipped with 11 provincial-level or ministerial-level research platforms, and has developed prominent research strengths in several key areas, including highway construction and maintenance technologies in seasonal frozen regions, bridge inspection, reinforcement and health monitoring, road traffic safety, and transportation information sensing and big data. These scientific and technological achievements support major national engineering projects, such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the runway of Capital Airport, China-Russia Heihe-Blagoveshchensk Bridge, the Navigation System of the Capital Airport Flight Area, Lhasa Gonggar Airport.