The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China established the integrated promotion of education, science and technology, and talent as an important foundation and support for improving the overall efficiency of the national innovation system. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at the National Education Conference the need to promote education development, scientific and technological innovation, and talent cultivation as a whole. Scientific and technological innovation is the driving force for disciplinary development and the track for talent growth. Higher education is the foundation of scientific and technological innovation and the nursery for reserve talents. Only by adhering to the integrated development of education, technology, and talent can we open up new fields and tracks of development, continuously shape new driving forces and advantages, and promote high-quality development of higher education. We must firmly grasp the direction of scientific and technological innovation development and build a high-quality higher education system; To actively adapt to the demand for scientific and technological innovation talents and promote the transformation of the talent-cultivation model in higher education; We need to improve institutional mechanisms and strengthen the cultivation of scientific and technological innovation talents through diversified collaboration; We should actively embrace the technological revolution of the intelligent era and shape a new form of digitalization in higher education; We need to strengthen international exchanges and cooperation, and create a good open innovation ecosystem.

Modernization of higher education governance is an important component of national governance modernization, and it is a necessary way to promote the construction of a strong higher education country and the process of Chinese modernization. On the basis of interpreting the connotation of Chinese modernization and its characteristics, the thesis discusses the logical relationship between the modernization of higher education governance and its urgency in Chinese modernization, answers the purpose of the modernization of higher education governance, its main body and its options for action, and explores the path of action for the reform of university governance based on the purpose of governance modernization.

Family background is the most important factor for students to make decisions on higher education. If families with relative advantages tend to choose the “Pilot Reform Program of Enrollment for Fundamental Disciplines”(PRPEFD) in order to attend elite universities, the selection effectiveness of PRPEFD is likely to be weakened. Based on the survey data which Graduate School of Education in Peking University held in the investigation of national college students’ development, this paper studies the relationship between students’ family background and their motivation for choosing PRPEFD. It is found that although the proportion of PRPEFD students taking major interest as their choice motivation is higher than that of utilitarian motivation for chasing elite universities, and there is no significant correlation between family background and major interest motivation, compared with families with relative disadvantages, PRPEFD students from families with relative advantages are more keen to chase elite universities. This preference for elite universities is mainly reflected in the student groups who come from relatively developed regions. Advocating the family relationship of “respecting and supporting children” and giving students sufficient information support will help reduce the utilitarian motivation of families with relative advantages to pursue elite universities, and help encourage the major-related interest motivation.

Generative artificial intelligence not only promotes self-regulated learning among college students, but also exacerbates academic misconduct such as plagiarism and copying. Generative artificial intelligence cannot directly shape college students’ creativity, and its impact on creativity depends on students’ self-regulated learning and their ethical boundaries in using generative artificial intelligence. The tension between the convenience of technology and the utilitarian learning approach fostered by meritocracy, as well as the contradiction between weak awareness of academic ethics and inadequate supervision, are the keys to triggering inappropriate use of generative artificial intelligence, which in turn stifles college students’ creativity. Self-regulated learning can not only reduce college students’ inappropriate use of generative artificial intelligence but also effectively mitigate the negative impact of such inappropriate use on their creativity. Enhancing the self-regulated learning of college students, helping them to rationally deal with intelligent technology, and reducing the inappropriate use of generative artificial intelligence are the keys to realizing the potential of generative artificial intelligence in enhancing college students’ creativity.

The interaction and symbiosis between industry organizations and higher education have a long-standing history. As the integration of industry and education evolves globally, various industry entities have become deeply embedded in all dimensions of higher education development, with promoting the development of higher education hubs as their significant function. Higher education hubs have been identified as an emerging representation of higher education internationalization. However, existing theories have not adequately addressed the role of industry organizations in their formation. A study of global cases reveals that through interactions with higher education institutions in the students, talents, and knowledge/innovation hubs, respectively, industry organizations serve to enhance the impact of national education brands, attract global talents, and facilitate knowledge production and transformation. An understanding of the roles played by industry organizations in the construction of each type of hub can also provide insights into local practice.

When education thrives, the nation thrives. When education is strong, the nation is strong. All world powers are also educational powerhouses, and a strong higher education system is a prerequisite for building a global superpower. By focusing on the trends and future prospects of global higher education transformation, this paper conducts an in-depth analysis the historical positioning and challenges faced by the reform and development of higher education with Chinese characteristics. Incorporating the theoretical framework and core features of green education, it explores Chinese strategies for the transformation of higher education: concentrating on autonomous talent cultivation to build a green talent nurturing system; focusing on autonomous discipline development to establish a green academic development system; emphasizing self-reliance and innovation in technology to construct a green technological innovation system; focus on strengthening cultural confidence and constructing a green cultural governance system. Accelerate the high-quality construction of first-class universities, develop green education, and blaze a new path of world-class higher education with Chinese characteristics to achieve the organic unity among people-oriented, open sharing, high quality and high efficiency, and sustainable development.

In the process of global higher education evolving from elite education to mass education and then to popularization, Chinese higher education has experienced rapid development and achieved significant achievements. Higher education plays a key role in supporting the development of science and technology and talent cultivation. Five strategies are adopted to further improve the quality and efficiency of higher education, continuously improve the quality of education and the ability of independent talent cultivation, better serve the national strategic needs, and help build a leading country in education, science and technology and talent through deepening the mode of independent talent cultivation throughout the whole cycle, promoting the deep integration of industry, education, and research, strengthening the construction of the teaching staff in an all-round way, improving the policy support system in an all-round way, and expanding international exchanges and cooperation in a globalized way.

Higher education faces numerous challenges in the digital era. The entire process of talent cultivation, including its objectives, methodologies, evaluation, and employment outcomes, is confronted with significant hurdles. Scientific research encounters challenges in paradigm integration and organizational transformation. Social service provision faces challenges related to openness and innovation. Digital transformation emerges as a crucial pathway to address these challenges. From a spatial perspective, the digital transformation of higher education will create a vast integrated space, encompassing three interrelated sub-spaces: a virtual-real fusion space merging virtual and real environments, an open and interconnected space interweaving fluid and local spaces, and a data-intelligent convergence space integrating data and intelligent domains. This integrated space in higher education will present a novel future landscape: talent cultivation will generate new models and ecosystems; scientific research will achieve organizational reform and paradigm upgrades; and social services will promote universal learning and collaborative innovation. To realize this integrated space in higher education, it is necessary to reconstruct “spatial practices”, innovate “representations of space”, cultivate “representational spaces”, and enhance human-machine integrated governance.

Since the 25th anniversary of Macao’s return to China, significant achievements have been made in higher education, with six private non-profit universities playing a crucial role. Currently, these private non-profit universities have seen remarkable expansion in their teaching scale, continuous improvement in teaching quality, substantial research output, gradual enhancement in internationalization, and rising international rankings. Their services to Macao and regional development have proven effective. The achievements of private non-profit universities epitomize the development of higher education in Macao. Their success is largely attributed to the effective implementation of educational governance under the “One Country, Two Systems” framework. By leveraging the unique advantages offered by the Special Administrative Region, these universities have consistently enhanced the quality of higher education of Ma, creating a miracle in the history of private higher education.

Under?the?background?of?the?new?era,?sustainable development within universities has emerged as a significant trend. As a complex systematic project, the exploration of its construction path is urgent. Based on the theoretical perspective of organizational ecology, an in-depth analysis of the endogenous logic of the sustainable development construction of 12 world-class universities is carried out. It is found that the sustainable development construction of world-class universities is guided by organizational legitimacy, differentiated by organizational imprint, motivated by ecological niche competition, and takes the organizational environment as the growth basis. This provides significant implications for the future implementation of sustainable development initiatives within Chinese universities：actively promote the legalization process and gather the driving force for sustainable development of universities; attach importance to the imprint effect of the organization and open up a distinctive path for sustainable development; establish the awareness of niche competition and achieve a leapfrog development in sustainable development of universities; build a collaborative organizational environment and promote the mutually beneficial and symbiotic evolution of multiple subjects in universities.

Accelerating the transformation of scientific and technological (S&T) achievements in universities and deepening enterprise-led industry-university research cooperation are important measures to promote comprehensive reform of higher education. From the perspective of university governance, the research responsibilities of universities play a role in promoting the improvement of teaching level, influencing the construction of the teaching staff, and promoting the development of disciplinary construction. Significant achievements have been made in the transformation of S&T achievements in universities, but there are still issues that need to be strengthened in terms of attention, adjusted guiding ideology, improved patent system, deepened industry academia research cooperation, and improved professionalization level of intermediary institutions. Taking organized scientific research as the starting point to cultivate high-level talents; taking market demand as the guided, promoting the transformation of S&T achievements into new quality productivity; taking high-quality development as the goal, optimizing the patent system; taking innovative culture as the guide, improving incentive systems, and deepening industry academia research cooperation with enterprises as the main body are effective ways to accelerate the transformation of S&T achievements in universities.

Higher education in developing countries has obvious advantages in development consciousness, resource networks and institutional innovations. In the midst of a new technological revolution, the construction and development of modern Chinese universities not only have universal backward advantages, but also show distinct Chinese characteristics in organization and system, society and ecology, culture and academic tradition. How to respond to the digital wave, seize the first opportunity in the future with digital thinking and digital technology, reform the mode of Chinese universities, and extend and reconstruct the backward advantages of leapfrog development are important issues of the times. In recent years, Zhejiang University has taken digital reform as the main line of practice to comprehensively improve the quality and efficiency of talent training, the vitality of scientific research and innovation, the depth of cultural inheritance and innovation and the level of university intellectual governance. These measures provide wisdom and solutions of Zhejiang University for Chinese universities to move to the forefront of world-class universities with greater backward advantages.

The due process system of the Academic Degrees Law has reversed the pattern of degree legislation that emphasizes substance over procedure, providing a bottom line guarantee for student rights, regulating the degree management power of universities, and providing judicial guidance for courts. The process content of this system is not yet sound, and there is no attention paid to the difference between not granting degrees and revoking degrees. The clarity of some rules needs to be improved. The improvement of the due process system in the Academic Degrees Law includes three aspects. Firstly, mechanisms such as hearing, recusal, and peer review should be introduced to improve the process content of due process. Secondly, setting stricter voting standards and revocation periods for degree revocation to avoid the negative impact that illegal degree revocation may bring to society. Finally, to enhance the clarity of the rules, including the acceptance of academic review and degree review should adopt the standard of formal review or unconditional acceptance. The degree evaluation committee and the student appeal handling committee should be respectively treated as the processing departments for the two types of review, clarifying the ultimate effectiveness of the two types of review decisions within the school, and making the review process to be the prerequisite for administrative review and administrative litigation.

On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the setting of a doctoral degree training model in China, comprehensively understanding the historical process, internal mechanism and development direction of its reform is of great significance for promoting the high-quality development of professional degree in education doctors. Based on the theory of institutional changes, the analysis framework for the reform of the professional degree training model of the doctoral degree in education in China has been constructed. It is believed that the professional degree training model of the doctoral degree in education in China has gone through three periods: brewing, pilot implementation, and comprehensive promotion. In the process, it follows a specific reform mechanism. Although this mechanism has its advantages, it has encountered difficulties at this stage: the positions of the three subjects need to be further rational, the degree of coercion and induction needs to be further improved, and the path dependence of the path needs to be further breakthrough. Looking forward to the future, the three subjects need to be in their positions to consolidate the maximum joint force of reform. We must not only enhance the compulsory force of mandatory reforms, but also improve the inductive reform of inducement reform; adhere to the continuous gradual reform and promote breakthroughs in key areas.

Achieving integrated innovation among government, industry, academia, and research is a crucial issue that needs to be addressed in the development of new forms of productivity. Based on the TOE framework, this study analyzes the driving paths of collaborative innovation among these sectors using a sample of 114 publicly listed companies in emerging digital intelligence fields, employing fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. The results indicate that high-quality productivity levels are generated through four main paths: “multi-dimensional and comprehensive driving, government-industry-academia collaboration, enterprise-led, and environment-supported”.Government innovation support policies are identified as significant driving factors for companies to overcome their own limitations and external resource constraints. Collaboration between industry and academia, along with an increased proportion of academic executives, enhances the opportunities for typified cooperation among different entities and paths. In the future, it is essential to harness the collaborative innovation capabilities of all parties, strengthen the government’s guiding and coordinating role in the innovation system, establish a supply-demand mechanism for industry-academia-research cooperation that aligns with the developmental needs of enterprises, and explore the creation of a distinctive government-industry-academia research cooperation system that fits regional development characteristics and leverages enterprise advantages.

Geopolitical crises brought uncertainties and challenges to international research collaboration. Given this background, it is the top priority of China’s scientific and technological development strategy currently to promote “organized research” in international collaboration, and to coordinate the free exploration of scientists with the national strategic goals. From the perspective of the synergetic theory and through an empirical investigation of 10 international collaboration projects relying on China’s universities, the study found that organized research in international collaboration has three aspects of connotation, which are values, knowledge characteristics and organizational forms. On this basis, the study analyzed the current problems and strategies of organized research in international collaboration of Chinese universities. The research proposed to build an innovation community on the basis of openness, trust and sharing, identify the focus of the organizational system to coordinate the interests and needs of different subjects, strengthen the linkage between international scientific research collaboration and talent training advantages, and improve the scientific research evaluation and management system.

The legislative path is the original problem of codification, and the legislative path of Education Code is the primary problem to be solved in the process of codification. The legislative path of Education Code mainly studies the important issues such as the legislative orientation, legislative model and legislative main line of Education Code. The legislative orientation of the Education Code should be the domain code, which has five elements: the collection of legal subjects, the complexity of legal relations, the domain of legal responsibilities, the expansion of the scope of adjustment, and the cross-departmental complexity. The legislative model of the Education Code should be formulated in essence to construct a new Education Code based on the interaction between educational norms and educational structures. The main line of the legislation of the Education Code should be the relationship in the field of education. According to the theory of the complete elements of the relationship in the field of education, the design basis of the legislative style of the Education Code is taken.

The quality of personnel training is related to the high-quality development of higher vocational education, and is the basis of measuring the core competitiveness of higher vocational schools. In order to fully display the quality of talents training in higher vocational education with Chinese characteristics, the paper adopts the method of factor analysis from three dimensions of talent training input, process and output, to construct an evaluation index system of talent training quality covering 10 secondary indicators and 34 tertiary indicators, and to quantitatively analyze the quality of talent training in 1 367 higher vocational schools in 31 provinces. It is found that the talent cultivation index of higher vocational education in our country shows the phenomenon of “east high and west low”. The problem of unbalanced and insufficient development between regions, provinces and schools is more prominent. Therefore, this paper puts forward the ways to improve the quality of vocational education personnel training, which are: to strengthen the cooperation between the east, the middle and the west and promote the flow and sharing of resources; to further deepen the integration of industry and education and accelerate the formation of a multi-input mechanism; to form an evaluation mechanism of talent cultivation results oriented by upgrading technical skill level and employment quality.

The construction of the knowledge system in higher education studies is a dynamic process deeply influenced by the characteristics of the era. It is not only the result of the intertwining of history and reality but also the product of the interaction between diachronic and synchronic perspectives. This paper analyzes the particularities of higher education activities in China within the context of the characteristics of the era, elucidating the complexities of Chinese higher education from both diachronic and synchronic viewpoints. It proposes a methodology for reconstructing the knowledge system of higher education studies, including the dialectical handling of the knowledge system’s temporality and foresight, theoretical and practical aspects, instrumental and ideological dimensions, and imitation and autonomy.

The modernization of internal governance in Chinese characteristic universities plays an important role in promoting the construction of Chinese path to modernization. Against the backdrop of new challenges, tasks, and requirements in the modernization of internal governance in Chinese universities, to increase the construction of the internal governance system of Chinese characteristic universities, it is necessary to adhere to the principal responsibility system under the leadership of the Party Committee, clearly define the strategic direction for serving the overall development of the industry, establish a sound internal operational system for the coordinated development of diverse powers, and optimize internal operating mechanisms; to accelerate the modernization of internal governance in universities with Chinese characteristics, efforts should be made to strengthen the Party’s leading role, grasp the basic logic of modernization of internal governance in universities, strengthen the reform efforts in key areas within universities, and enhance the level of education and governance of university cadres.

The new-model research universities in China have being arisen, and there are some related studies. However, there are no enough findings about the theoretic issues and construction effectiveness. This article analyses the main concepts such as new, model, inherent characteristic and continuous development; then finds three inherent characteristics of new-model research universities based on their functions of teaching, research and service, and those are: cultivating the students as innovators, doing the three-type-research under the three-orientation, and contributing the society with the innovators trained and research results gained. After these, the author discusses the four challenges faced by new-model research universities continuous development, saying the innovators’ training process is not coherent, the pioneering?research under strategic orientation is not yet switched on, the social service is not leading enough, and internal and external of new-model research universities are both hard to insist their Initial Heart in university construction. Finally, the paper suggests three kinds of choices on the strategy and action levels in order to the universities’ continuous development, such as, cultivating innovators should be implemented into the educating and teaching processes, being “the national treasure” should be transformed into research actions, and the Initial Heart of constructing new-model research universities should be integrated into the daily work of building the world-class universities.

As a new thing emerging in response to the development of the times and the needs of the society, the new research universities have received more and more attention from the national and local government. Research is the common and core element of research universities. Discovered through case-study and text encoding analysis, the element characteristics of the construction of the new research universities include breaking through the traditional institutional mechanism, anchoring specific scientific research fields and carrying out organized scientific research, focusing on the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents, promoting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and providing quality social services. New research universities want sustainable development，the key lies in not forgetting the original intention and following the rules, which is highlighted in adhering to uphold fundamental principles and break new ground, including playing the role of “the country’s major instrument” in the field of scientific and technological innovation, innovating the cross-integration of disciplines, exploring the reform of grass-roots academic organizations, cultivating top-notch innovation talents, and providing strong talent support for the development of new quality productivity of the country. In a certain sense, the dislocated development reflected in the characteristics of the construction of new research universities is the direction of the reform of traditional research universities. In the end, the development of these two types of research universities will “reach the same destination” and become a new pattern of the development of future research universities.

To solidify the foundation of mental health in graduate education, a comprehensive understanding of the basic situation of mental health problems is essential. This study employed meta-analytical approach, incorporating 330 articles from 2010 to 2023 (involving 243 161 individuals), to investigate the prevalence and influencing factors of major mental health problems among Chinese graduate student. The results indicated that the prevalence of mental health problems among graduate students, from high to low, included: academic burnout (32.7%), sleep problems (24.9%), compulsive issues (23.1%), depression (21.0%), anxiety (16.0%), hostility (9.7%), and suicide ideation (8.8%). Factors such as the year of literature publication, graduates’ educational phase and major, and measurement tools significantly impacted the prevalence. Based on these findings, strategies and recommendations are proposed: prioritizing the high incidence of mental health issues and implementing targeted solutions; being vigilant against the malignant development of mental health problems and improving tracking and monitoring mechanisms; paying attention to individual differences in mental health problems and enhancing the service and support system; innovating assessment tools for mental health problems and establishing standardized detection criteria.

Since the Chinese Economic Reform, China’s K-12 science education program has made notable progress. However, in the present landscape, several pressing challenges persist. These include a shortage of highly qualified science teachers, the imperative to enhance their professional competence, and the need for an improved training framework. To meet the needs of the professional development of science teachers in K12 schools, the Ministry of Education put forward the National Excellent K-12 Teachers Training Program (abbreviated as “National Excellence Program”), training high-quality future K-12 school teachers. The initiative is carefully designed to improve the education system, with a focus on enhancing science education. The “National Excellence Program” involves effectively utilizing the strong scientific research abilities and diverse interdisciplinary resources found in leading high-level comprehensive universities. It intends to train science teachers who will have strong passion in teaching, exceptional skills, and a solid grasp of science and technology. Responding to the imperative need, Shanghai Jiao Tong University established its own College of Education, consistently placing science education at the forefront and consistently pioneering innovative approaches to cultivate future science scholars. This article provided some valuable practical insights, serving as an important foundation for fostering innovative scientific and technological innovation talents in our country.

Over the past decade in the new era, remarkable achievements have been made in the construction of the teaching staff and student cultivation in primary and secondary schools in China. However, there are still issues such as insufficient supply of high-quality teachers, deficiencies in the “early cultivation” of top-notch innovation talents, and the urgent need to strengthen the integrated cultivation system for cultivating top-notch innovation talents from primary through higher education. The implementation of the “National Excellence Program” holds significant value in transcending boundaries and adhering to educational principles in talent cultivation; it revolutionizes traditional pathways in talent development and reshapes programs to optimize the talent cultivation system in primary and secondary schools. High-level universities should leverage their unique advantages and courageously assume the mission and responsibilities of the “National Excellence Program”, primarily focusing on the following four areas: forging ideological power, cultivating a fertile ground for students’ ideals and beliefs, and creating a value-oriented ecosystem; forging intellectual power, enriching students’ interdisciplinary foundation, and creating a disciplinary incubation ecosystem; forging leadership power, enhancing innovative and practical capabilities, and creating an innovative cultural ecosystem; forging action power, inspiring students’ potential for joy and aptitude in teaching, and creating a supportive policy ecosystem.

To construct an independent knowledge system of higher education, it should adhere to the central task of high-level personnel training, accurate grasp and follow the logic and value orientation of the division of different types of disciplines, expand constantly the research content combined with the reality of higher education, improve problem-based and multi-disciplinary research paradigms, define scientifically the boundary of the discipline, promote interdisciplinary and integration, accelerate the development of graduate education for professional degree, deepen the reform and innovation, carry out objectively a comparison between Chinese and American graduate students in education discipline, highlight the Chinese characteristics, so as to build the Chinese research paradigm, discourse system, and discipline system of higher education, and to make greater contributions for speeding up the construction of a leading country in education, science and technology, and talent.

Higher education studies represent a crucial cornerstone in the development of an independent knowledge system within the realm of Chinese philosophy and social sciences. Although the framework of higher education studies has been established, its explanatory power is currently insufficient and requires enhancement. Despite the proliferation of research in higher education, there is a notable lack of practical guidance, requiring refinement and consolidation. Despite its preeminent status in education, higher education lacks theoretical innovation and urgently calls for independent construction. The future construction of an independent knowledge system in higher education studies should prioritize the development of three major systems: disciplinary, academic, and discourse. The construction of the disciplinary system in higher education studies should emphasize autonomy, while the academic system should emphasize collaboration, and the discourse system should emphasize integration. Three major sources of importance for an independent knowledge system in higher education are identified: awareness derived from regular practices in higher education activities, truth consensus from government policy supply, and innovative systematic knowledge synthesized by scholars. Finally, we propose establishing a triple-helix model of knowledge production in the discipline of higher education studies, consisting of practitioners in higher education activities, policymakers in higher education, and researchers in higher education theory.

The compilation style of the general formula of the education code requires giving full play to the “common factor formula” function of the basic principle in the general rules. However, there are three contradictions in the refining and interpretation of the basic principles of the current education law, and they are progressive step by step. They are respectively: the contradiction between the singleness of source and the complexity of nature, the contradiction between the thinking mode of domain law and the requirement of content independence of legal principles, and the contradiction between social responsiveness and elements coordination. We should take the nature orientation of “education law is departmental administrative law” and the basic attributes of legal principles as the theoretical premise, and at the same time respect the protection of citizens’ right to education and the development of socialist education as two parallel main lines of value. Then, we should take the educational attribute, normative attribute and collaborative attribute as standards to integrate the basic principles and determine the basic principles of education law according to the two main values of the Constitution in the field of education. Finally, we should consider the corresponding problems of normative structure, code nature and system guarantee with a kind of integrated thinking.

Deepening and comprehensive reform?requires comprehensive reform of higher education. The necessity and urgency of comprehensive higher education reform, its goal tasks, and the?critical stages’ core?keys and breakthrough points are determined by?Chinese modernization’s tasks and historical orientation.?To deepen this comprehensive reform is about system and mechanism, specifically, the reform of “decentralization, regulation, and service”, the system reform of science-education integration, the system and mechanism reform of personnel and talents in universities, the supply-side reform of higher education, the organizational method reform of teaching and research, and the method reform of evaluation and assessment. Abolishment and establishment should go together. Establish the new before abolishing the old. The key lies in “establishment”.

Higher education studies is a discipline unique to China, having a 40-year history as an established field of study in the country. Against the backdrop of building a strong educational nation, the high-quality and substantive development of higher education urgently requires theoretical support from higher education studies. From the perspective of higher education studies moving towards “maturity”, it is still considered an “immature” discipline. The characteristics of a “mature” higher education studies include the ability to explain phenomena in higher education practice, guide higher education reforms, and lead the future of higher education. The “immaturity” of higher education studies is influenced by both internal and external factors, and the discipline’s destiny is closely linked to its level of maturity.

Self-control is an essential cornerstone for the academic achievement and long-term development of college students. This study constructs a localized system of observation indicators for self-control based on a systematic review of the multidimensional theoretical concepts of self-control and the characterization of self-control deficiency among Chinese college students. Utilizing nationwide tracking data of university students, we analyzed the driving effects and mechanisms of self-control on academic achievement. Our findings indicate that a lack of self-control constitutes a collective crisis among Chinese college students, manifesting in characteristics such as difficulty in controlling efforts, failure in delaying gratification, unhealthy sleep habits, and symptoms of digital distraction, across academic, personal, and online domains. Through the mediating effect of academic engagement, self-control exerts a significant driving effect on both current and long-term academic achievement. This study provides scientific support for enhancing self-control among college students and ensuring the quality of talent cultivation in higher education.

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the rule of law in educational organizations has been significantly progressed at four levels: the Central Committee of CPC, the highest state organ of power, the comprehensive central administrative agencies and other central state organs, and the administrative organs on educational affairs. However, there are still some problems to be solved: modification on consultation and coordination mechanisms, harmonization on the relationships between different organizations etc. Under the background of Chinese modernization, it is necessary to combine practical demands and historical experience and attach importance to Education Organization Law, especially the Central Education Organization Law. Legal guarantees should be provided for the Party’s leadership on educational affairs and the operation of education administrative organizations. It is essential to further clarify the scientific setting and rational allocation of functions at different levels of organizations, including the Party’s leadership on educational affairs, government management, and the direction of education administrative organs.

Strengthening technological innovation in local universities is a crucial measure for fully implementing the strategy of innovation-driven development and promoting high-quality economic and social development at the regional level. As the main entities for knowledge accumulation, creation, and dissemination within their respective regions, local universities serve as important carriers and platforms for original innovation and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. Traditional methods, such as transfer and licensing, are facing practical difficulties. Therefore, there is an urgent need for equity reform in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in local universities, particularly through further exploration and optimization of equity investment. Through methods such as literature review, data analysis, and case studies, this paper summarizes and analyzes the current situation and issues of equity reform in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in local universities, and concludes common models for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in local universities in China. Drawing on domestic and international practices, the paper explores effective pathways for equity reform in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in local universities. These research findings provide valuable insights for promoting technological innovation and optimizing the mechanism for transforming scientific and technological achievements in local universities, ultimately facilitating the sound development of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in local universities.

The center of gravity of higher education level will shift upward with the popularization of higher education and economic growth. In order to accelerate the construction of the talent center and innovation highlands, it is imperative to adjust the “region-level” matrix structure of higher education. Based on China’s provincial and U.S.’s state-level panel data, it is found that the scale and proportion of graduate education in China’s major innovation regions have obvious gaps compared with the U.S., and the center of gravity of higher education levels in provincial regions is generally low; higher education hierarchy has a “flat-N” influence on regional innovation, the positive effect decreases with the proportion of graduate education, and then decreases after the inflection point. That is, the positive effect is weakened firstly with the increase in the proportion of graduate education, and then strengthened after the inflection point; the inflection point is concentrated around 30%, and most of the U.S. states are close to the inflection point, and the hierarchical structure tends to be stabilized, while most of China’s provinces and regions still have a greater potential for the hierarchical upgrading. For this reason, different regions need to position themselves scientifically and reasonably regulate the structure of higher education; most regions should steadily raise the level of higher education; and priority should be given to the layout of incremental postgraduate education in regions with innovative advantages in order to promote the construction of innovation highlands.

As the national education digitalization strategy action starts its third year, education digitalization is entering a new stage of development. Higher education is the leading force. Looking to the past, adhering to the “3C” concept of prioritizing Connection, Content, and Cooperation, higher education digitalization has achieved remarkable results such as iterative upgrades of infrastructure systems, open sharing of high-quality educational resources, and deepening domestic and international cooperation, laying a solid foundation for the comprehensive transformation of higher education digitalization. Based on the current situation, focusing on the “3I” road of Integration, Intelligence, and Internationalization, Wuhan University of Technology actively carries out pioneering practical explorations and strives to be a “test field” for higher education digitalization. It has achieved higher quality in aggregating data resources, higher efficiency in applying intelligent technology, and higher levels of international cooperation, providing support and guidance for the innovation and development of higher education digitization. Looking to the future, we should pay more attention to reshaping the education ecosystem through artificial intelligence, deepening the application service orientation, and promoting an in-depth overall transformation of higher education digitalization.

The virtual teaching research section, which is a digital variant of the physical teaching research section, is a new type of higher education teaching support mechanism established by using information technology and the Internet. It is centered around research on specific subject teaching, course groups teaching, and major teaching reform themes, forming a national or regional network of experts and scholars in colleges, universities and related institutes. It is necessary for the popularization of higher education in the new era and may lead the direction of high-quality development of higher education. Virtual teaching research section has characteristics such as inter school symbiosis, loose relationships, collaborative innovation, and academic navigation. They should fully utilize their organizational advantages and play a role in coordination, promotion, platform, cohesion, and navigation. In order to function effectively, a virtual teaching research section must have academic highlands, enthusiastic academic leaders in teaching research, academic backbone, and high-quality seminar and exchange activities. Strengthening the construction of virtual teaching research sections can take measures such as holding academic forums on teaching, organizing research on cross-university education and teaching projects, leveraging network connectivity and radiation, establishing cross-university virtual operation mechanisms, and seeking enthusiastic support from institutions of higher education.

The high-quality development of higher education requires respecting the ecological law of knowledge activities and following the principle of integrity. However, due to the lack of integrity and systematism of the current higher education strategy in China and the problem of single key construction strategy, the structural imbalance of the higher education system occurs. These problems include non-key universities falling into the dilemma of resource shortage, strong dependence of colleges and universities but weak independent development and service ability, excessive competition among colleges and universities damages the education ecology, and the homogenization of different types of colleges and universities, which violates the basic logic of high-quality development. Therefore, China’s higher education development strategy should strengthen the overall construction, from building a few first-class universities to building a first-class university system. As a development paradigm, college cluster development guides colleges and universities to realize collaborative innovation and efficiency value-added in strengthening inter-university cooperation, which is an effective practice path to promote the construction of first-class university system. To this end, we should provide value guidance, lay discipline foundation and strengthen system guarantee for the development of university clusters through university cluster governance.