The Hebei Agricultural University(HEBAU), founded in 1902, sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the National Bureau of Forestry and the  Hebei Provincial Government respectively, is the oldest higher agricultural education implementer in China, and also the oldest institution and pioneer of higher education in Hebei. It is a participant and executor of the national “outstanding engineers training plan” and “excellent talents of agriculture and forestry training plan”.

There are 27 colleges offering 87 programs for bachelor’s degrees, 74 programs plus 7 professional programs of 20 disciplines for master’s degrees, and 34 programs of 8 disciplines for doctoral degrees, with 6 post-doctoral research stations. It has one of the most comprehensive programs of all agricultural universities nationwide, forming a multidisciplinary and coordinated education pattern with the Life Sciences as the dominant field, satisfying the economic development needs of Hebei Province. Of all the disciplines provided, there is 1 national key discipline, 2 key disciplines of the Ministry of Agriculture, 1 key discipline of the National Bureau of Forestry, 4 disciplines with strong characteristics in Hebei, and 16 key disciplines of the provincial level. There is one National Engineering Research Center for Agriculture in Northern Mountainous Areas, which is the only one at the national level out of all Hebei higher educational institutions, and 33 labs of the ministerial and provincial levels (centers and bases), as well as 18 research institutes. Its publications include the Journal of Hebei Agricultural University (editions of Natural sciences and Agricultural & forestry education respectively), Journal of Forestry and Ecological Science, etc.

Its 5 campuses are located in the cities of Baoding, Qinhuangdao, Cangzhou and Dingzhou, covering an area of more than 1.81 million square meters in total where the building area amounts to over 1.33 million square meters. In addition, there is an over 330-hectare affiliated farm, an over 2,700-hectare affiliated forest farm and over 283 experimental bases of teaching-research-production across the province. The campuses’ libraries possess a collection of over 2.46 million volumes of books. The university’s instruments and equipment are valued at around 2518 million RMB yuan.

The teaching faculty, totaling more than 2,500, is made up of 459 professors and equivalent positions, 848 associate professors and equivalent positions, 167 doctoral supervisors and 520 master’s supervisors. The total enrollment of over 37,000 students includes more than 2,400 students for doctoral or master’s degrees.

HEBAU has been built into a multidisciplinary university, with a specialty of agronomy and forestry, covering the 8 fields of agriculture, industry, basic sciences, economics, management, literature, law and medicine. Since 1989, 8 national awards and 92 provincial awards have been won for its excellent achievements in education.                                                                                                                                                               

The research work has reaped a bump harvest. For example, of the 1003 evaluated projects since the 12th five-year plan, 257 projects have won awards of the ministerial and provincial levels or above. 61 new varieties of organisms have been approved. HEBAU has achieved more than 326 patents and published 1,828 academic papers listed in three major indexes. Scientific research funds reached 695 million yuan. Research achievements created evident social and economic effect to rejuvenate agriculture and Hebei through science and technology. The quantity and grade of scientific and technological awards has been ranking first among the provincial universities for ten years in a row.

The University has established academic exchange and inter-university relations with 29 universities or colleges abroad and started joint programs with Inholland University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands, University of California Riverside, USA, New Mexico State University, USA .etc. International students are enrolled for short-term studies and long-term education from bachelor to doctorate. Moreover, the University has conducted several foreign-aid master degree programs and short-term training programs sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce of PRC with more than 500 participants from developing countries. The long-term stable cooperative relations with universities and colleges abroad have been formed and lots of students have been sent abroad for further studies.

Following the motto formed in its infant years- “In agricultural education, truth could not be obtained without practice; the subtleness of matters could not be approached without experiments; and neither practice nor experiments should be neglected in favor of the other”, HEBAU has forged a tradition of running the school with a combination of teaching, research, and production. This tradition later became known nationwide as the “Taihang Mt. Road” philosophy and has formed the spirit of “hard work, willing dedication, truth-seeking and pragmatic engagement, love for the Motherland and service for the people”, which serves as treasures to promote overall advancement of the university in improving itself and its students.