College of Construction Engineering at Jilin University was established in May 2001, with its history tracing back to 1952. Several renowned domestic and international experts and scholars once taught at the college, including Professor Liu Guochang, a prominent educator in engineering geology; Academician Liu Guangzhi, a distinguished exploration engineering expert; Professor Zhang Zuping, a foreign academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and an educator in exploration engineering; Soviet engineering geologist Professor Novozhilov; and Soviet exploration engineering expert Professor Popov. These scholars laid the foundation for higher education in engineering geology and exploration engineering in China. In the 1990s, the college introduced the Civil Engineering program. In 2012, the Ministry of Education released a new academic program catalogue, renaming the Engineering Geology and Exploration Engineering programs as the Geological Engineering program.
The college admits students under the Civil Engineering category and currently offers two undergraduate programs, two postdoctoral research stations, three doctoral programs, and four master’s programs. The Geological Resources and Geological Engineering discipline is a first-level national key discipline and a national "Double First-Class" initiative self-construction discipline cluster. Geological Engineering is a second-level national key discipline, while Civil Engineering is a key discipline with distinctive advantages in Jilin Province (Category A). Both Geological Engineering and Civil Engineering are national first-class undergraduate programs, and the Geological Engineering program has passed national engineering education accreditation.
The college consists of seven departments and six research institutes. It houses one national-level laboratory, six ministerial-level key laboratories (including engineering research centres, collaborative innovation centres, and engineering technology innovation centres), four provincial-level laboratories, and two provincial undergraduate experimental teaching demonstration centres. The college currently has 1,490 undergraduate and graduate students, and 141 faculty members, including 42 professors, 38 doctoral supervisors, and 5 nationally recognized talents.
The college has strong research capabilities. It leads the Ministry of Education’s Leap Forward Plan Special Project on "National Potential Oil and Gas Resources (Oil Shale Exploration and Development) Industry-Academia-Research-Application Collaborative Innovation Project," Jilin University's first scientific research project with funding exceeding one billion RMB. The college independently developed China's first 10,000-meter continental scientific drilling rig, "Earth One," under the National Deep Exploration Special Project and has contributed to major national strategic projects, such as the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, through major projects of the National Natural Science Foundation. In recent years, the college has undertaken over 300 national, ministerial, and provincial research projects, with a total research funding of approximately 300 million RMB. The college’s research outcomes won second prizes in the National Technological Invention Awards in 2019 and 2016 and were recognized by the Ministry of Education as one of the "Top Ten Scientific and Technological Advances in Chinese Universities." The college holds over 200 authorized patents domestically and internationally, has published more than 500 SCI- and EI-indexed papers, and has published over 30 textbooks and monographs. Most of the research results are at the leading domestic and international levels, with some reaching the highest international standards, generating significant economic and social benefits.
The college provides a strong international academic environment, maintaining long-term scientific research, academic exchange, and talent cultivation collaborations with over 20 universities and research institutes in more than a dozen countries and regions, including Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The college’s academic programs are also supported by well-known enterprises and alumni, with a total amount of social scholarships exceeding 13 million RMB.
Over the past 70 years, the college has trained more than 17,000 senior professionals, including one academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, one academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and 11 national exploration masters. Graduates are widely employed in various sectors such as land and resource management, energy development, mining, civil construction, water conservancy and hydropower, geological disaster prevention, transportation, national defence, urban planning and construction, marine and polar sciences, as well as education, research, and government agencies.