From October 10th to 12th, an international assessment of HEU’s discipline of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering was carried out for the first time. An evaluation panel, headed by Muk Chen Ong, a member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and a professor at Stavanger University, consisting of 9 well-known experts and scholars from the University of Strathclyde, Florida Atlantic University, Newfoundland Memorial University, France BV Classification Society, University of Nevada Las Vegas the Southampton University, Taiwan University, and the University of Technology Sydney, were formed and invited to HEU to comprehensively analyze and identify the "strengths and weaknesses of the Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering discipline, as well as the prospect and potential for future development.

A kickoff meeting was held before the evaluation. President Yu Yao and Vice President Duanfeng Han, the persons in charge of the Discipline Office and the colleges of the discipline (the College of Shipbuilding Engineering, the College of Power and Energy Engineering, and the College of Underwater Acoustics), and professor/teacher representatives attended the meeting.

At the kickoff meeting, YAO thanked the experts for coming to “diagnose” the discipline of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering. He said that after several generations of efforts, the Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering discipline of the university has become an important domestic power of fundamental and application research in the area of naval architecture and ocean engineering, and is also now a major supporting force for breaking through in core and key common technologies. In order to adapt to the development trend of multidisciplinary integration and to continuously improve the level of first-class discipline construction, the university hopes that experts would objectively evaluate the current level of the discipline, analyze the strengths and weaknesses with a global vision, help HEU clarify its status quo and identify the gaps, and promote and revive the Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering discipline for a new prosperity.

Yumin Su, dean of the College of Shipbuilding Engineering, made a  self-assessment report to the panel on the overall situation of the discipline. The report expounded the situation of the discipline and achievements that has been made, covering aspects of the history and evolution, teaching and practice, scientific research activities and teaching personnel, international exchanges and collaborations, and the prospect for future development. Professor Hongde Qin, Wenyang Duan, Zhuang Kang, Jingtao Du, Gang Qiao also made reports of representative research areas and answered to the questions of the panel.

After the meeting, the panel members sat in the classes that were offered to the students of naval architecture and ocean engineering; conducted interviews with the directors of the colleges, administration staff, heads of research teams, young teachers and students; and visited the National Defense Science and Technology Key Laboratory of Underwater Robotics and the Key laboratory of Underwater Acoustic Technology.

On the afternoon of 12th, the panel announced their preliminary evaluation results at the Qihang Activity Center. Professor Muk Chen Ong, on behalf of panel, praised the university for its competence in teaching, the experimental facilities, and the practical ability of teachers and students. At the same time, comments and suggestions were also provided on the weaknesses of HEU in international exchange and fundamental research. He says that international evaluations of disciplines can help the university identify the strengths and weaknesses by the international standard and with a global vision; and such activities can facilitates to improve the featured disciplines of a university and benefits its reputation in the world. A formal report of the evaluation was to be concluded two weeks after.

In order to implement the governmental directives "Notice of the State Council on Printing and Distributing the Overall Plan for Promoting the Construction of World-Class Universities and First-Class Disciplines", "Several directives on Deepening the Reform of System and Mechanism, and accelerating the Implementation of Innovation-Driven Development Strategy" and "Qualification Assessment for Degree Authorization Organizations", and also for the reasons and purposes of discipline construction, “13th Five-Year Plan” and the “Two First-Class Initiative”, the university had planned international evaluation of the naval architecture ocean engineering discipline and the nuclear science and technology discipline for 2018. The evaluation results will be used as a reference for subsequent resource allocation and policy making. Long-term adherence, and institutionalization and normalization will be the university’s strategies for sound development of the discipline construction and improvement of the overall level.