The School of Civil Engineering (SCE) traces its roots to the Department of Civil Engineering (DCE) of National Southeast University established by Prof. Mao Yisheng in 1923. Currently, SCE consists of five departments, namely Structural Engineering, Construction & Real Estate, Engineering Mechanics, Bridge & Tunnel Engineering, and Water Engineering, and one Experimental Center. With more than 200 faculty and staff members, SCE features an outstanding innovative teaching & research team.

The disciplines of Civil Engineering and Engineering Management are listed in National Key Disciplines and Jiangsu Key Disciplines. In 2009 and 2013, Engineering Management passed the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) global accreditation. On September 21, 2017, Civil Engineering was listed as a double first-class discipline and awarded A+ in the fourth round of disciplinary assessment, ranking No.1 at the national level.

In recent years, SCE has made remarkable achievements in scientific research, teaching reform, and textbook authoring, etc. SCE possesses a number of outstanding academic units and many state-of-the-art engineering laboratories for teaching and researching. SCE has received 10 awards at the national level, including first and second prizes for national science and technology progress, second prize for national technology inventions, and three national teaching awards. SCE has enrolled over 16,000 students up to now, including more than 140 international students from 39 countries. It plays an active role in international exchanges and cooperation.