Heilongjiang International University

I. Welcome Address

Welcome to Heilongjiang International University, a diverse and vibrant place of learning located at one of the most exciting cities in China. Giving students and society what is needed most. This principle has guided and inspired HIU ever since its establishment.

To contribute to society in pursuit of applied global education is the challenge HIU faced. We bore it well and now it is our beacon, lighting the way to a bright future. Excellence is our goal, the priority in all that we have so far striven for and all we shall endeavour to do. We aspire to nothing less than excellence on the international scale.

HIU is committed to delivering the best possible learning experience to the widest possible range of students. Observing close ties with industry we maintain an innovative focus on practice over basic research, inculcating pragmatic skills and building resources drawn from relevant experience. Here, we look on applied higher education as a life-changing journey that leads every student to the rewards of their own chosen careers.

We are here to transform lives, meet needs and build vocations. This mission underpins all that we do. It is my honour to share our dreams and vision with you today.

Professor Liu Ying

Principal

Heilongjiang International University

II. Timeline

1993

Harbin Star Foreign Language College (in collaboration with British academic institutions) is established by current Director General and Principal Liu Ying in Heilongjiang.

1994

Accredited by the State Ministry of Education, Harbin Star Foreign Language College becomes the first institute in Heilongjiang to develop Sino-foreign cooperation in education. Exchange students begin to study to the UK.

1998

A new institute located in Harbin City Centre comes into service.

2002

Harbin Star Foreign Language College begins running in cooperation with Harbin University. Three schools with five majors are established, including the school of Business, school of English and school of Informatics &Science.

2003

Harbin Star Foreign Language College begins running in cooperation with Harbin Normal University, and is officially renamed Harbin Normal University Star College. Four schools established with twelve majors.

2004

School of Chinese Language and Literature is established with two majors.

2005

Major of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language is opened. Twenty-three majors in total are included.

2006

Major of Art and Design is opened.

2010

School of Russian and Eastern Language is established, incorporating the major of Japanese, Korean and Russian Languages. All three major are newly expanded.

2011

Authorized by the State Ministry of Education, Harbin Normal University Star College is transformed to a systematically independent private university renamed Heilongjiang International University (HIU).

2013

Western Language Department is established. Three more majors, namely Spanish, German and French, are opened.

2014

HIU enters the China Universities of Applied Technology alliance to strive for the cultivation of applied talents. School of further education and school of international education are established.

Three new majors are opened: Hospitality Management, Auditing and E-commerce.

2015

Establishment of four functions: School of Foreign Services Outsourcing, School of Tourism, The institute of Italian Studies and International Language Centre.

III. Academic Structure

International Language Centre

HIU’s International Language Centre is made up of diverse language centres. The English division was founded in partnership with Scotland’s National Centre for Language and the University of Strathclyde, whilst the Spanish division functions in collaboration with the University of Salamanca and the Russian division with Altai State University of Russia. The aim of the International Language Centre is to promote educational research and cultural programs.

The International Language Centre has a crucial linguistic training and research function, and thus provides a range of language support and cultural interaction for all our students and teachers as it strives to improve their communicative and academic skills on every level. Drawing on excellent educational services and resources offered by the International Language Center, students will be developed into talented personnel who offer a global outlook, cross-cultural communication skills, critical thinking and hands-on capabilities. In addition, the International Language Centre also provides language services to local business organizations.

School of International Education

The School of International Education is responsible for developing a coherent strategy for promoting international relations and international competitiveness, and creating a global profile for the university. The work of the School is broad and includes the promotion of deeper engagement with key countries, international collaborations in research and education, international educational experiences for all students, and the integration of international academic staff and students.

Preparation courses for international students are aimed at helping improve language skills, as well as deepening understanding of the various subjects. The primary fiction of the School is to guide international students through their move to China and help them settle in, as they may require aid in applying for student visas, finding suitable accommodation, sorting out financial concerns and taking advantage of available employment opportunities. To help international students with every stage of their acclimation to Chinese life, the Student Services team is on hand to offer valuable advice and assistance on preparing for their studies and their new life abroad.

The Institute for Italian Studies

The Institute for Italian Studies is an inter-disciplinary research institution. It is the first establishment of its kind in China and a leader in the research of Italian issues, as well as language teaching.

The institute serves as an important Italian research headquarters as well as a platform for Italian-oriented exchanges. It carries out and publishes research on Italian politics, economics, culture, and the bilateral relations between China and Italy. Here students can take on a course load which offers lessons on the Italian language. The institute is also involved in the mutual exchange of teachers, students, and scholars with universities at home and abroad.

The establishment of this research institute opens up a brand-new chapter in trans-national cooperation and exchanges between China and Italy. Its existence helps promote progress in science and technology in both China and Italy, whilst also providing Italian language education.

School of Arts

The Arts Department provides strong practical basis and is a good introduction to the disciplines for students who wish to pursue design and to work as design professionals in the future. Students can integrate theory and practice through a series of supervised projects where creativity and innovation have ever been at the heart of the learning process.

The department’s combination of lectures and work-based learning emphasizes the development of a range of skills required for employment in the design and media industries. This department makes full use of our foreign teacher resources, actively launches extra-curricular programs with English elements and works effectively on cultivating the students’ creative identity as well as implementing their growing creative awareness.

Majors: Visual Communication Design, Animation, Environmental Design (Environmental Art Design, Exhibition and Display Design)

School of Business

Business students will obtain comprehensive knowledge and a profound understanding of their subject, long with a range of technical application skills that relate to the key business function and its three core areas of financial reporting, management theory and business finance. This is complimented by full training in business, which will give the students a comprehensive understanding of the factors, both internal and external to the organization, that impact on its success.

The students will gain a range of professional and technical skills and a heightened sense of commercial awareness that will be immediately transferrable to the business environment.

Majors: International Economy and Trade, Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Hospitality Management, Auditing

School of Chinese Language and Literature

The School of Chinese Language and Literature develops students’ communicative skills in Chinese whilst simultaneously deepening their understanding of Chinese history and culture. It offers a strong focus on modern, contemporary and ancient Chinese, thereby developing a solid understanding in our students of China’s rich literary and cultural heritage. Graduates are thereby equipped with proficient language skills, which ensures them versatility and adaptability in a range of career opportunities including many in education, academia and the media. In addition, the students are brought closer to their own origins as part of the world’s oldest continuing culture. HIU is proud of its work to further and develop cultural awareness and language skills among the native young people of China.

Majors: Broadcasting and Hosting, Chinese Language and Literature, Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.

School of English

The School of English is characterized by a combination of English in tandem with another major. It highlights the development of the students’ communicative competence in oral and written English. Besides which, the program also fosters socio-cultural competence as the students are consistently guided to cultural awareness of the western world. These studies provide not only a rewarding challenge and active pleasure, but also the foundation of a critical and cultural awareness that will remain with the students for life. The programmes are primarily interdisciplinary-oriented in that the students can include the study of some related areas, offered as optional modules by other schools in the University.

Majors: English (Teaching, non-teaching), Business English, Translation.

School of Informatics and Science

School of Informatics and Science is tailored to give students an overview of computing and provides a grounding in fundamental techniques and concepts. It also reinforces a combination of a solid theoretical basis with a wide variety of practical applications. Teaching and learning take place in a range of settings and is largely laboratory-based.

The department is equipped with forty-one teachers including three professors and one expert at the Provincial level. There are three majors: computer science and technology; media technology; and E-commerce. The education mode combines professional training with one foreign language and also a component of joint university enterprise. In collaboration with its counterparts in some companies, the department develops technical talents to provide a foreign outsourcing service.

Majors: Computer Science and Technology, Media Technology, E-commerce

School of Russian and Eastern Languages

HIU has responded to the rapid development of the North-East Asian economy and the consequent renewed demand for professional business exchange, through the founding of a department dealing specifically with North-East Asian languages. The School of Russian and Eastern Languages was launched in 2010, and takes as its priority the development of skills specific to carrying out Sino-foreign relations in this area. Its specialism is the cultivation of foreign-related and technology-skilled professionals.

The school prioritizes not merely the learning of language skills specific to North-East Asian nations, but also provides a solid grounding in a cultural and literary understanding of geographical neighbours. In this way, personal and business exchanges are facilitated for our graduates.

Majors: Russian, Japanese, Korean.

School of Tourism

The School of Tourism was founded in response to the increasing number of employment opportunities offered by the tourism industry. This industry has become an important social and economic force on the global scale, and one that now provides an array of jobs in many different areas such as accommodation, transportation, cuisine, attractions, events and conferences, adventure tourism and recreation, travel trade and tourism services, and many more.

China has become a popular destination for tourists worldwide, and an increased demand for graduates in the field of hospitality, travel and tourism has been anticipated.  The School of Tourism intends to cater to students who wish to pursue careers in this growing industry.

After four years of study, students will successfully graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in their chosen subject and will receive an additional Diploma in Management. Graduates from this program will possess the necessary knowledge and skills of hospitality and tourism professionals, and will thus be able to work in the tourism industry both at home and abroad.

Majors: Hospitality Management, Tourism Management, MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Conference and Exhibition) Management

School of Western Languages

The Western Languages Department consists of three majors: German, French and Spanish. Its graduates can master two foreign languages, thereby acquiring sound professional knowledge. They will also build an innovative spirit that lends strong practical ability for meeting real-world challenges.

The advantages of a grounding in European languages speak for themselves. Students will graduate with the confidence and conversational ability to make rich and rewarding travels in Western Europe, and also to pursue employment there with the undoubted advantage of bilingual business skills. Europe holds a wide range of diverse cultures with sparkling secrets in the literary, architectural, culinary and artistic realms, all of them waiting for our students to explore. Graduates will become a part of China’s ever-growing interest in and cultural exchange with European peoples as their nation’s globalization continues.

Majors: German, French, Spanish.

School of Foreign Service Outsourcing

As a forerunner of educational collaboration in our province, our university and the Neusoft Group have established a secondary college to meet the demand for personnel. The college adopts a brand-new approach incorporating bespoke training, and this program provides real work experience for students through the university’s collaborations with its various partners. The skills acquired in the program will translate into job-readiness upon graduation.

The foreign service outsourcing courses are added to mandatory core courses of the students’ specialization. In cooperation with the companies listed below, this bespoke training format features real practice for real projects under the guidance of professionally experienced mentors. There are ongoing opportunities for students to work as interns in the partner enterprises as a part of their practical training.

Current business partners include the Neusoft Group, Tarena Technologies Incorporated, China Soft International in Beijing, Wisdom in Beijing and the Alibaba Group.

School of Further Education

The school’s guiding principle is that post-secondary education to adult learners should be an integral part of a lifelong learning process. The training enables questing minds to acquire knowledge and transferable skills for re-employment.

A range of Bachelor’s Degree programs are currently available at the School of Further Education, which also offers twenty-two junior college diploma programs. The School currently boasts over 3,000 students studying dozens of different courses, for which two modes of study are available: part-time course loads and correspondence teaching. The courses are tailored to three different categories: those for senior high school graduates to follow a junior college diploma course, those for junior college diploma holders to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree, and those that cater for the pursuit of professional certifications.

IV. Global Collaboration and Exchange

HIU is a steadily weaving network of efficient global collaboration and exchange which further facilitates its educational development, whilst also enhancing its academic and cultural exchanges. The university has completed a significant volume of work on internationalization.

The university has been actively establishing strategic international alliances with universities and institutions worldwide, and is also committed to cultivating internationalism on campus. In addition, full support to staff, student mobility projects and international programmes at all levels.

HIU has close ties with over forty universities in sixteen countries. The collaborative projects range from student placement and exchange to staff training, and academic collaboration and conferences.

Member of International Associations

Association of Asian Universities (AAU)

Association for Career&Technical Education(ACTE)

International Association of University Presidents (IAUP)

Network of International Business Schools（NIBS）

University Association of China Northeast and Russian Far East and Siberia（UACR）

Testing Center of international Examinations

Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK)

Advanced Placement Test  (AP)

London Chamber of Commerce and Industry International Qualifications (LCCI)

University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations Main Suite Exams (MSE)

Accredited Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)

V. International Partners

Argentina

University of Buenos Aires

Bolivia

Universidad Privada Boliviana

Canada

Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology

University of the Fraser Valley

Estonia

University of Tartu

Finland

Karelia University of Applied Sciences

France

Nice Sophia Antipolis University

Studialis Group

University of Nantes

Ireland

Griffith College Dublin

Japan

Fukuoka University

Hiroshima Kokusai Gakuin University

Kyoto College of Graduate Studies for Infomatics

Kyushu Foreign Language Academy

Musashi-Urawa Japanese Language Institute

Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies

Korea

Daejeon University

Pai Chai University

Sangmyung University

Malaysia

Sunway University College

Russia

Altai State University

Amur State University

Amur State University of Humanities and Pedagogy

Blagoveschensk State Pedagogical University

Far Eastern Federal University

Irkutsk State Linguistic University

North-Eastern Federal University

Novosibirsk State Technical University

Pacific National University

Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service

Spain

Alcala University

King Juan Carlos University

Meytaqui Academy

Universitat Jaume I

University of Las Palmas De Gran Canaria

University of Salamanca

The United Kingdom

London South Bank University

Staffordshire University

Scotland’s National Centre for Languages

The University of Buckingham

University of Bedfordshire

The United States

Rutgers University

EachFuture Cultural Network

VI. HIU Statistics

19,845 qualified students in total have graduated from HIU, including 13,874 undergraduates, 1,971 college students and 4,000 students with overseas background (information updated as of July 2015).

Students have been recruited from twenty-two out of the thirty-two provinces and autonomous regions, leading to a total of 11,520 current registered students, 9,220 undergraduates and 2,300 students in community education.

In the past twenty years 616 foreign experts and 344 professors and renowned scholars have worked here (information updated as of July 2015).

The campus covers an area of 534,800 square metres. University and student accommodation covers an area of 241,800 square metres.

Library holdings total 2,100,000 books. Online resources comprise 250,000 pieces.

HIU has established cooperative relationships with over sixty universities and institutions in sixteen countries and regions worldwide (information updated as of July 2015).

A total of 1093 students were sent overseas for intership and study between 2012 and 2015.

A total of 300 international students were from outside China for study between 2011 and 2015.

The employment rate for graduates is 93.86% in the year of 2015.

The satisfaction rate for alumni is 94% in the year 2014.