The College of Civil Engineering has a rich educational history and is one of the early institutions in China for the development of modern civil engineering disciplines. It is also the cradle of architectural, transportation, and water conservancy disciplines in Anhui Province. The predecessor of the college was the Civil Engineering Department of Anhui Provincial Baoji Industrial Vocational School, one of the first two majors established when Hefei University of Technology was founded in 1945. In 1953, the Mining and Construction Department was established to meet the needs of coal mining. In 1961, it was renamed as the Department of Structural Engineering, offering two undergraduate majors: Industrial and Civil Architecture, and Architecture. In 1967, the original Anhui Hydraulic and Electric College merged into our school, and its majors in Agricultural Water Conservancy Engineering and Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering Construction were incorporated into the Department of Structural Engineering. In 1979, the water-related majors were separated to form the Water Conservancy Engineering Department, and the Architecture major resumed enrollment. In 1982, the Architecture Design Research Institute was established. In 1986, due to development needs, the Department of Structural Engineering was divided into three: the Department of Structural Engineering, the Department of Architecture, and the Architectural Design Institute. In May 1988, the Water Conservancy Engineering Department was renamed the Department of Civil Engineering, offering majors in Agricultural Water Conservancy Engineering, Water Conservancy and Hydropower Construction Engineering, with specializations in Civil Engineering Construction Structures, Water Supply and Drainage Engineering, and Transportation Civil Engineering. In May 1994, with the approval of the State Education Commission, majors in Water Supply and Drainage, and Transportation Civil Engineering were officially established. In June 1999, the Department of Structural Engineering, the Department of Civil Engineering, and the Department of Mathematics and Mechanics merged to form the College of Civil and Architectural Engineering. In 2007, it was renamed the College of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering.

The college offers eight undergraduate majors, including Civil Engineering, Architectural Environment and Energy Application Engineering, Water Supply and Drainage Science and Engineering, Urban Underground Space Engineering, Engineering Mechanics, Surveying Engineering, Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering, etc. The Civil Engineering major is a national characteristic specialty, one of the first pilot majors of the national Outstanding Engineer Training Program, and a national comprehensive education reform demonstration specialty. It has four directions: Building Engineering, Road and Bridge Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, and Engineering Management. In 2019, the Civil Engineering (Intelligent Construction) innovative class (selected from the entire university) was established, and in 2021, it was approved as a new engineering discipline for intelligent construction. Surveying Engineering and Architectural Environment and Energy Application Engineering are provincial comprehensive education reform demonstration specialties and pilot specialties for the provincial Outstanding Engineer Training Program. Water Supply and Drainage Science and Engineering is a provincial characteristic specialty. Civil Engineering, Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Water Supply and Drainage Science and Engineering, Surveying Engineering, and Architectural Environment and Energy Application Engineering are five majors selected as national first-class undergraduate professional construction sites. In 2020, the Civil Engineering major passed national accreditation for the fifth time; in 2019, the Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering major passed national accreditation for the second time; in 2018, the Water Supply and Drainage Science and Engineering major passed professional evaluation by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development for the second time, and the Surveying Engineering major passed national accreditation for the first time; in 2017, the Architectural Environment and Energy Application Engineering major passed professional evaluation by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development for the first time. In 2003, the college was approved as the first provincial experimental teaching demonstration center for basic courses in higher education (awarded by the Anhui Provincial Department of Education), and in 2022, it was approved as the first provincial joint graduate training base in Anhui Province (awarded by the Anhui Provincial Department of Education).

The college has established a complete education system from undergraduate to doctoral and post-doctoral levels. Currently, there are over 3,100 full-time undergraduate students and more than 1,000 doctoral and master's students. The college has two doctoral degree authorization points in the first-level disciplines of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, as well as a post-doctoral mobile station. It covers 12 second-level discipline doctoral degree authorization points, including new second-level discipline doctoral degree authorization points in Intelligent Construction and Water Conservancy and Marine Engineering. There is also a doctoral degree authorization point in the Energy and Power Engineering discipline, which can recruit full-time and part-time doctoral students. There are four master's degree authorization points in the first-level disciplines of Civil Engineering, Water Conservancy Engineering, Mechanics, and Surveying Science and Technology, covering 18 second-level discipline master's degree authorization points, including a new second-level discipline master's degree authorization point in Intelligent Construction. There are also master's degree authorization points for majors such as Civil Water Conservancy and Engineering Management (MEM). Structural Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, and Engineering Mechanics are key disciplines in Anhui Province, and Civil Engineering is a key discipline in which Anhui Province has advantages. In recent years, the college has strengthened international exchanges and cooperation with world-renowned universities such as the University of Birmingham in the UK, the University of Nottingham, the University of Lille in France, and the University of Northern British Columbia in Canada.

The college has a strong faculty, including 1 academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 1 academician of the French Academy of Sciences, 2 chief experts of key special projects of the National Key Research and Development Program, 1 recipient of the National Excellent Youth Science Foundation, 1 top talent of the Thousand Talents Plan, 5 recipients of the Ministry of Education's New Century Excellent Talents Support Program, 3 recipients of the Humboldt Foundation in Germany, 3 recipients of the Marie Curie Scholarships from the European Union, 2 provincial teaching masters, 7 academic and technical leaders in Anhui Province, 7 outstanding young talents in Anhui Province, 1 Pearl River Scholar in Guangdong Province, and 2 recipients of the Hubei Scholar series. There are 36 doctoral supervisors, 51 professors, and 89 associate professors. Over 95% of the faculty members have doctoral degrees, and all teachers come from prestigious universities both domestically and internationally, with more than 75% having overseas study and work experience.

The college has 8 departments, 1 experimental center, and 7 research institutes. The experimental center includes 3 basic laboratories, 8 professional laboratories, and 1 BIM center. The college has established national-level research platforms, such as the National Prefabricated Construction Industry Base, the Advanced Steel Structure Technology and Industrialization Collaborative Innovation Center, the Anhui Key Laboratory of Civil Engineering Structures and Materials, the Anhui Engineering Technology Research Center for Civil Engineering Disaster Prevention and Reduction, the Anhui Modernization Demonstration Base for the Construction Industry, the Anhui Infrastructure Safety Detection and Monitoring Engineering Laboratory, the Anhui International Joint Research Center for Hydrogen Safety, and the Anhui Laboratory of Rural Water Environment Governance and Water Resource Utilization Engineering. The college is also involved in the co-construction of the Ministry of Education's Engineering Research Center for Safety Key Industrial Measurement and Control Technology and the Non-Coal Open-Pit Mine Disaster Prevention and Control Key Laboratory of the National Mine Safety Supervision Bureau. The school collaborates with large enterprises such as China Railway Fourth Bureau Group, Donghua Technology, Anhui Construction Group, Anhui Holding Group, Anhui Fuhuang Group, Anhui Lugang, and Anhui Road and Bridge to jointly build 12 provincial key/engineering laboratories. It also collaborates with Tsinghua University's Hefei Public Safety Research Institute to jointly establish 1 provincial-level technology innovation center.

Furthermore, the school has jointly established the International Joint Research Center for Smart Cities and Resilient Disaster Prevention with the University of Lille in France, fostering extensive international exchanges and cooperation. At the same time, the school has established a national-level education center for civil engineering professional engineering practice, an Anhui provincial experimental teaching demonstration center for engineering mechanics, and has established close talent training and project cooperation relationships with large enterprises such as China Construction, China Railway, China Chemical Group, Shanghai Construction, Anhui Construction, and Anhui Holding. There are 100 internship bases jointly established, laying a solid foundation for cultivating engineering and technical talents with an international perspective and innovative spirit. Over 77 years of operation, the school has trained more than 40,000 alumni, producing a large number of outstanding talents represented by Tang Chengpei, Cai Qihua, Gu Xianglin, Li Heping, Yuan Hongyong, Xu Lihua, Tang Jun, Zhang Bozhong, and Peng Zhibin.

The school has established a three-in-one undergraduate education and teaching model based on moral education, ability orientation, innovation, and entrepreneurship. It implements the Graduate Education Innovation Project and emphasizes the organic integration of education, teaching, and scientific research. It adheres to the principle of combining basic theory research with engineering application research, advocates writing papers on products, conducting research in projects, transforming results in enterprises, and testing effectiveness in the market. The school's research focuses on four important development directions: intelligent building and architectural industrialization, major infrastructure construction and operation, environmental governance and resource reuse, resilient disaster prevention, and energy security utilization. It undertakes theoretical and applied research on major projects, gradually forming an internationally influential and domestically renowned first-class research team.

The school has a strong academic atmosphere, and its research achievements are impressive. In the past five years, it has undertaken more than 100 national-level projects, including key special projects of the National Key R&D Program, the National Excellent Youth Science Foundation, and the National Natural Science Foundation. Research results have won 6 first prizes and 18 second prizes in Anhui Provincial Science and Technology Progress Awards and have been successfully applied to over a hundred major projects such as Hefei New Qiao International Airport, Bengbu Museum, Bengbu Sports Center, Hefei Metro, Zhengzhou High-Speed Rail South Station, Hangzhou High-Speed Rail East Station, Hefei Binhu Convention and Exhibition Center, Ma'anshan Changjiang Bridge, Chizhou Public-Private Dual-use Bridge, Jinan Shi'ji Public-Private Dual-use Bridge, and have achieved good social, economic, and environmental benefits. The school attaches importance to the cultivation of students' innovative abilities, and students have achieved excellent results in various domestic and international science and technology competitions. In 2020, they ranked among the top 10 in the World Solar Challenge.

The school aims to cultivate outstanding talents with both virtue and ability, a strong sense of service to the country, comprehensive development of morality, intelligence, physical fitness, beauty, and labor, and a broad international perspective and innovative entrepreneurship ability. The school actively faces the world's scientific and technological progress and innovation, the needs of major national and regional strategic development, scientifically plans and comprehensively promotes the construction of first-class disciplines in our school, and strives to build a high-level research-oriented school that is internationally renowned and domestically leading.