Hohai University (formerly known as East China Technical University of Water Resources) is one of the national key universities administered directly under the Ministry of Education. It is also one of the first universities empowered by the State Council to confer Bachelor's, Master's, Doctor's degrees and approve the qualifications of professor, and doctoral supervisor.
Geotechnical Institute of Hohai University (GeoHohai) was founded in 1952 by Huang wen-xi, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and pioneer in geotechnical engineering in China. Subsequently, the institute was developed steadily under the leadership of professors Qian jia-huan, Xu zhi-ying and Jiang pu. It is one of the Institutes authorized by the State Council to confer Master's and Doctor's degrees, in 1981 and 1982, respectively. It has been accredited by the Ministry of Education as the national key subject since 1988. The post-doctoral program was commenced in 1991. In 1994, it was approved by the Ministry of Water Resources as the key geotechnical engineering laboratory. In 1999, it was commissioned by the Ministry of Education to establish distinguish professor positions for “Chiangjiang Scholar”.
GeoHohai employs 42 qualified staff, including 16 professors (14 of them are PhD supervisors), 8 associate professors and 18 lecturers. 26 of them have PhD degrees. Currently GeoHohai enrolls 5 post-doctors, 96 PhD students and 236 master students.