In the report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized implementing the fundamental task of moral education. The development of the discipline of engineering education has proposed effective solutions for moral education of engineering majors in higher education institutions in the new era. Through research on engineering education from ancient to modern times, both domestically and internationally, this paper analyzes the problems of moral education in engineering majors from the perspective of contemporary engineering education: weakened moral education function of teachers, neglect of student literacy cultivation, and lack of warmth in teacher-student relationships. The insufficient accumulation of educational theory among engineering teachers is the main reason of these problems. The paper proposes that the cultivation of teachers with dual backgrounds in education and engineering, the reform of teacher education time supply, and the construction of a teacher-student community are effective ways to implement moral education. The research results can provide new insights for moral education in higher engineering education in China in the new era.