The NEFU is a multidisciplinary university with Forestry as its dominant discipline and Forestry Engineering as the characteristic focus. It is situated in Harbin, the center of the largest state-owned forest region in China. The main campus covers 136 hectares. NEFU also has the Mao’ershan Experimental Forest Farm (also known as Mao’ershan National Forest Park), the Liangshui Experimental Forest Farm (Liangshui National Natural Reserve), and other education, research and practice bases. The total area of the university reaches 33,000 hectares.

History

The Northeast Forestry University (NEFU) was founded in July, 1952 from the combination of the Department of Forestry, College of Agriculture in Zhejiang University and the Department of Forestry in Northeast Agricultural College. It was originally named Northeast Forestry College directly under the administration of the Ministry of Forestry. It was renamed Northeast Forestry University in August, 1985, and was put under the direct administration of the Ministry of Education in February, 2000. After the approval by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education, it is entitled to enjoy support from several of the country’s initiatives, including the “Project 211” (The Chinese Government's endeavor aiming at strengthening approximately 100 institutions of higher education and key disciplinary areas as a national priority for the 21st century) in October, 2005 and the Innovation Platform for Advantageous Disciplines in June, 2011. It was selected as the First-class Discipline Construction University in September, 2017. The NEFU is co-sponsored by the Ministry of Education and the State Forestry Administration according to their agreement in November, 2010, and by the Ministry of Education and the People’s Government of Heilongjiang Province in the light of the agreement in March, 2012.

Teachers and Students

Presently, there are more than 27,000 students studying at NEFU, including 19,433 undergraduates and 7,753 graduate students. More than 190,000 students have graduated since its founding. It has 2,300 faculty members, 1,300 of whom are full-time teachers. Some of these teachers are holders of extraordinary academic titles and various special honors: two professors are members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; five professors are “Yangtze River Scholars”; three professors are “Young Yangtze River Scholars”; two professors won the National Fund for Outstanding Young Scientists; five professors won the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scientists; three teachers entered the National Millions of Talents Project; three entered the New Century Millions of Talents Project; two won the title of Leading Talents for Scientific and Technological Innovation of Ten Thousand Talents Program, one won the title of Famous Teachers of Ten Thousand Talents Program, and two are included in the Youth Top-notch Talents Supporting Project of Ten Thousand Talents Program; seven are included in Young Talents Supporting Project; twenty-four are included in the New Century Outstanding Personalities Supporting Project; twenty-six experts enjoy special government allowances from the State Council; two teachers have been awarded the title of National Young and Middle-aged Expert with Remarkable Contributions; eleven teachers are awarded the title of Provincial and Ministerial Young and Middle-aged Experts with Remarkable Contributions; eleven professors and six young scholars are “Longjiang Scholars”; one team is listed into the first batch of Huang Danian Style Teachers’ Teams in National Universities; two Innovation Teams are supported by Ministry of Education Development Program for Yangtze River Scholar and Innovation Team; there are four Leading Talent Echelons of Heilongjiang Province and four Headed Goose teams. In recent years, three teachers won the National Famous Teacher Awards; five teachers won the National Excellent Teacher Award; one teacher won the title of National Model Teacher; eighteen teachers won the Provincial Famous Teacher Award; eight teachers won the Provincial Excellent Teacher Award; three won the National Forestry and Grassland Famous Teacher Award; one team won the title of National “Worker Pioneer”; two teachers won the National May 1st Labor Medal; one has the title of National May 1st Women’s Pacesetter; and there are three winners of the provincial Youth May Fourth Medal .

Disciplines and Programs

Currently, NEFU is comprised of a Graduate School, nineteen colleges and one teaching department offering programs ranging from bachelor’s degrees to doctoral degrees. There are 68 bachelor’s degree programs, 19 national first-class undergraduate major construction sites, 10 first-level doctoral degree disciplines, 19 first-level master’s degree disciplines, and 17 categories of professional degrees. There are also 9 post-doctoral research centers and one post-doctoral research station; 2 international first-class construction disciplines which are Forestry and Forestry Engineering, and 4 national first-level construction disciplines which are Biology, Ecology, Landscape Gardening, Agriculture and Forestry Economic Management; 3 first-class National Key Disciplines and 11 second-level National Key Disciplines; 6 State Forestry and Grassland Administration Key Disciplines and 2 State Forestry and Grassland Administration Key (Cultivated) Disciplines, as well as 1 Key Disciplinary Group of Heilongjiang Province, 7 first-level Key Discipline of Heilongjiang Province. Six disciplines, including Botany and Zoology, Agricultural Science, Chemistry, Material Science, Engineering, Environmental Science and Ecology, have entered top 1% of the ESI global rankings. It also has a State Training Base for Talents in Life Science and Technology which was co-approved by the State Development Planning Commission and Ministry of Education. Another State Training Base for Research and Teaching Talents (Biology) was approved by the Ministry of Education. NEFU is a state pilot university for the reform of the educational system and State Training Program of Excellent Engineer and Excellent Agricultural and Forest Talents. It is also a model university for the Ministry of education to deepen innovation and entrepreneurship education, and a national innovation and entrepreneurship practice base.

Teaching and Research

NEFU has excellent bases for teaching, research and practice training. The national level facilities include one State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding; one State Key Field Scientific Monitoring Station on the Mao’ershan Forest Ecosystem; three State Experimental Teaching Demonstration Centers of Forestry, Forest Engineering and Wildlife Resources; two State Mock Experimental Teaching Centers of Forest Engineering and Wildlife Resources. The provincial and ministerial level facilities include four Key Laboratories of the Ministry of Education (forest plant ecology, biomaterial science and technology, northeast saline-alkali vegetation ecology recovery and reconstruction, and sustainable management of forest ecosystem); six State Forestry and Grassland Administration Key Laboratories; fifteen Provincial Key Laboratories; two Engineering Research Centers of the Ministry of Education; four Engineering Technology Research Centers of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration and one Cat Research Center; three Bases for Introducing Talents of Discipline Innovation to Universities (one of them has been upgraded to “2.0” plan); six Provincial Experiment Teaching Demonstration Center; three Ecosystem Monitoring and Research Stations of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration; one Provincial Research Base for Philosophy and Social Science; five Provincial Key Research Bases for Humanities and Social Science; two Provincial Think Tanks; the Wildlife Testing Center of the State Forestry Administration and the Woodworking Machinery Inspection Station of the State Forestry Administration. The university-level key facilities include seven on-campus practice training bases, such as the Mao’ershan Experimental Forest Farm and the Liangshui Experimental Forest Farm etc., and 310 off-campus teaching and training bases and 111 off-campus graduate practice training bases. In 2020, Mao’ershan Experimental Forest Farm, Liangshui Experimental Forest Farm and Forest Museum were selected into the fifth batch of national forest and grass science popularization bases, and the Forest Museum was upgraded to national second-class museum. In 2021, the Northeast Asia biodiversity research center and Carbon Neutralization Technology Innovation Research Institute were established.

Exchanges and Cooperation

The NEFU develops international exchange and cooperation in a positive attitude, and has established cooperative relationships with over 100 universities and research institutes of more than thirty countries and regions. There are about 150 experts and scholars from Europe, America, Asia and China’s Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions who have visited NEFU for academic purposes each year, and more than 120 teachers from the NEFU go abroad for the same purposes. NEFU has developed a variety of student exchange programs with cooperative universities in Russia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, America, Canada, Australia, South Korea, Ethiopia, Japan etc. and China’s Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions. A number of students from NEFU are sponsored by the Chinese government to study and obtain degrees from cooperative universities. NEFU, the University of Auckland in New Zealand and the University of Aston in the United Kingdom have jointly sponsored the Chinese foreign cooperative educational institutions and programs, which were approved to recruit students, respectively. In recent years, NEFU held some large-scale international academic conferences such as the International Symposium on Forest Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, the 2019 International Symposium on Cross-border Protection of Tigers and Leopards. NEFU has educated a number of excellent international students from over eighty countries of five continents, as one of the admission universities for international students sponsored by the Chinese Government Scholarship.

Awards and Honor

In 2007, the NEFU was given the mark of “Excellence” during the evaluation of undergraduate teaching conducted by the Ministry of Education. The National Central Civilization Commission granted the honorary title of National Civilized Unit in 2011, 2014 and 2017, and National Civilized Campus to the NEFU in 2020. NEFU has kept the title of Provincial Civilized Unit for a continuous 16 years. In recent years, the NEFU has won a number of other honorary titles such as National Education Base for Ecological Civilization, National Model Home of Workers and Staff, National Advanced Collective of Teacher’s Morals Construction, National Advanced Collective of Teacher’s Morals Construction, National Afforesting Exemplary Unit, the 7th and 10th Mother River Awards, National Advanced Unit in Student Financial Assistance, National May-Fourth Red-banner Youth League Committee, National May-Fourth Red-banner Youth League Branch, Excellent Project Office of the Western Program of National College Students’ Voluntary Service, Top Ten Harmonious Campuses of Heilongjiang Province, Advanced Collective of Patriotism Education of Heilongjiang Province, Advanced Unit of Legal Publicity and Education of Heilongjiang Province, Advanced Unit of Conscription in Heilongjiang Province, Advanced Collective of Collaborative Construction of Army, Police and Civilians, Advanced Collective of Student Work of Heilongjiang Province. NEFU has been rated as a National Advanced Unit of College Students’ Social Practice for 20 times. In 2020, NEFU successfully hosted the 12th Challenge Cup Chinese College Students’ Entrepreneurship Plan Competition, and won the Excellent Cup achieving 2 gold, 1 silver and 5 bronze medals. Since the start of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, NEFU has won more than 711 awards at all levels for scientific research achievements. These awards include six second-class prizes of National Science & Technology Progress Awards, 89 Liang Xi Forestry Science and Technology Awards of the Chinese Society of Forestry (including 7 first-class prizes), 253 ministerial and provincial Awards (including 24 first-class prizes) as well as more than 4,800 national patents. In 2018, one second prize of the National Teaching Achievement Award was awarded.

Adhering to the fundamental task of Building Morality and Cultivating Talents, the NEFU has cultivated a large number of senior professionals for the party, the country and society. A large number of outstanding professionals, management talents and innovation and entrepreneurship professionals, represented by the national, provincial and ministerial leaders, academicians of the Chinese Academy of engineering, academics and business elites, have emerged. A number of outstanding graduates represented by the Saihanba Forest Farm builders, Yinggeling Nature Reserve youth team, and Xu Xiujuan, the first environmental protection martyr in China, have made important contributions to China’s forestry construction, ecological civilization construction and economic and social development.

NEFU strengthens the overall leadership of the party, upholds the concept of Quality, Green, Innovation and Cooperation, and adheres to its motto: Learn from Nature, Strive for Harmony. It will make unremitting efforts to consolidate its already existing advantages and distinguishing disciplinary features, so as to place itself at the forefront of national agricultural and forestry universities and become a high-level university with distinguishing features and international reputation. Finally, NEFU endeavors to edge into the world leading universities of forestry with Chinese characteristics.

Data up to November 30, 2021