Hunan Institute of Engineering is located in Xiangtan City, Hunan Province, the hometown of Mao Zedong, a great man of a generation. It is an undergraduate college organized by the People's Government of Hunan Province. The school is a pilot university for postgraduate education of the Ministry of Education’s "Services for the National Special Needs Talent Training Project", the first batch of the "Excellent Engineer Education and Training Program" and the "New Engineering Research and Practice Project" implemented by the Ministry of Education; it is a master's degree awarded by Hunan Project construction unit and the first batch of "2011 Plan" were selected as universities. In 2018, the school was selected as a high-level application characteristic college in Hunan Province's "Double First-Class" construction.

The school has two campuses, the main campus and the south campus. The main campus is adjacent to the Xiangjiang River, sitting on the Muyu Lake, with beautiful landscapes and beautiful scenery. It is a "garden-style unit" and a "civilized college" in Hunan Province.

The school adheres to the strategy of opening up schools and conducts in-depth foreign exchanges and cooperation. It is one of the first universities in Hunan Province to start a Sino-foreign cooperative education program. It has signed inter-school cooperation agreements with more than 20 universities from the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and other countries.