Evaluation and quality assurance in higher education play an important role in promoting quality awareness, clarifying quality concepts, reinforcing quality norms and promoting quality construction. However, it is also faced with the tension between uniformity and diversity, normativity and autonomy, authority and utilitarianism that comes with standardisation. Its roots lie in scientism and its cult of quantification. In response, there has been a postmodern turn towards de-indicatorisation of evaluation, with a focus on the integrity, diversity and development of the object of evaluation, a look at the life activities of the object of evaluation itself, and an emphasis on the building of a culture of educational evaluation and quality assurance. The excellent tradition of Chinese educational evaluation is instructive for the postmodern turn in higher education evaluation and quality assurance, which should be creatively inherited and innovatively developed.

This paper assesses the effectiveness and changes in the selection and cultivation of “Top-Notch Talent Cultivation Program” over time. Results show that the “Top-Notch Talent Cultivation Program” has produced initial effects, which have shifted as the policy evolved from version 1.0 to 2.0. At the input stage, the top-notch students show slightly increased heterogeneity and improved overall competencies; at the process stage, students perceive an optimized institutional environment and greater academic freedom, yet face excessive workload and unmet individual needs; at the output stage, the proportion of graduates pursuing overseas study has dropped significantly, with greater gains in cultural literacy and collaboration but reduced gains in research literacy, thinking ability, and interest. Restricted-sample analysis indicates that from 1.0 to 2.0, the scale of “Top-Notch Talent Cultivation Program” expanded, yet the resource advantages and effectiveness of the elite universities may have been diluted. Future efforts should focus on high-quality faculty development, improved academic assessment, and personalized cultivation to improving the quality of talent cultivation.

As a primary programmatic vehicle for cultivating top-notch innovative talents in basic disciplines in China, the Plan for Strengthening Basic Disciplines manifests diverse policy implementation practices. Through constructing an integrated analytical framework of “institutional logics-organizational resources” and conducting qualitative research at a pilot university, this study reveals that departments implementing the Plan generally adopt multiple strategies: promoting undergraduate research system innovation through experimental approaches, negotiating integrated training transitions via flexible adaptation strategies, exploring curriculum integration through selective implementation methods, and refining talent cultivation programs through strict compliance approaches. However, when confronted with high institutional logic conflicts or insufficient organizational resources, these departments face implementation dilemmas including diminished innovation, goal displacement, suspended execution, and mechanistic compliance. Future reforms should focus on four key improvements: Enhancing university governance structures and optimizing organizational resource allocation; Expanding policy implementation frameworks while establishing collaborative supply mechanisms; Reconciling institutional logic tensions alongside innovating resource integration mechanisms; Promoting multi-stakeholder collaboration through building dynamic iterative mechanisms.

Based on data from undergraduates questionnaire, this paper examines the relationships between socio-emotional skills, high-impact educational activities, and undergraduates’ clarity of career planning. The results indicate that professional learning and entrepreneurial practice activities are significantly associated with the clarity of career planning for non-“Double First-Class” construction universities undergraduates. Social practice activities positively correlate with undergraduates’ career planning clarity from “Double First-Class” construction universities’. Among non-“Double First-Class” construction universities undergraduates, emotional regulation and engaging with others skills are significantly related to their clarity of career planning, while collaboration and open-mindedness skills show a negative relationship. The Shapley value decomposition method further reveals that the combined contribution rate of the two types of factors to the clarity of career planning exceeds 52%. Among them, socio-emotional skills are the most influential factor for undergraduates from non-“Double First-Class” construction universities, whereas high-impact educational activities are most influential for those from “Double First-Class” construction universities.

This study focuses on the synergistic development of research aspiration and participation behavior among undergraduate students enrolled in the Strengthening Basic Disciplines Plan (SBD Plan). Based on identity theory and employing a mixed-methods approach, we conducted empirical research on SBD students enrolled in a pilot university of the SBD Plan from 2020 to 2023. Compared to regular admission students, SBD students exhibit a higher proportion of the “cohesion” type and a lower proportion of the “dual deficiency” type. This demonstrates the effectiveness of the SBD Plan’s selection process and early research intervention. However, a significant 40% of SBD students fall into the “participation without aspiration” type, higher than the 35% observed among regular admission students, indicating a disconnection between their research aspiration and participation behavior. Disciplinary heterogeneity manifests as follows: natural sciences students often instrumentalize research due to postgraduate pressure; engineering students are constrained by rigid training programs; humanities students participate passively driven by peer competition. Based on these findings, we propose recommendations including establishing a process-oriented assessment system, implementing discipline-specific “interest-project” matching mechanisms, and strengthening faculty value guidance.

China is constructing young research universities. Whether or not those young research universities established in different continents, countries or regions have similar developmental status and models? The paper selects 19 samples with a history of no longer than 50 years from the global top 100 young research universities under the common constraints. It applies quantitative statistics and comparative methods, and makes teaching, research, citation, industry income and international outlook as analysis dimensions. The paper studies on the developmental status of world young research universities between 2019 and 2023, and generalizes the developmental models and their features of world young research universities. The seven universities present the barn-shaped model with a relative balanced in analysis dimensions and obvious changes in university operation; the twelve universities present the spindle-shaped model with the preferences in citation and internationalization, and relative stability in their developments.

Promoting high-level comprehensive university systems to participate in teacher education is a strategic action to optimize the national teacher supply. However, it faces institutional tension in policy implementation, theoretical paradoxes in discipline construction, and organizational coupling dilemmas in the field of practice. Based on the extension of Burton Clark’s conceptual framework of higher education system, a double helix coupling model of “instructional knowledge integration” and “embedded power game” is constructed. Knowledge integration is carried out through regulatory, guiding and empowering instruction systems, and power games are embedded in specific fields such as resource allocation, curriculum dominance and personnel appointment. The interaction between the two generates four ideal types of coupling mechanisms: absorption, confrontation, negotiation and iteration, which evolve dynamically according to university governance structure, discipline culture and external pressure. Therefore, in building a teacher education system, high-level comprehensive universities must transcend the single instructional thinking and zero-sum game of power, and use differentiated coupling mechanisms according to local conditions to form a self-improving and continuously innovative generative teacher education ecology.

Based on the Triadic Reciprocal Determinism, the innovative ability of doctoral students is the result of the interaction among academic subjects, research practice, and the academic ecosystem. The elements of academic subjects include cognitive foundation, thinking traits, and psychological capital; the elements of research practice cover exploratory behavior, design behavior, and implementation behavior; and the elements of the academic ecosystem involve material support, cultural guidance, institutional incentives, and mentor guidance and support. In the interactions among these three aspects, the interaction between the academic ecosystem and research practice generates guiding elements, the interaction between research practice and academic subjects strengthens behavioral elements, and the interaction between the academic ecosystem and academic subjects shapes an innovative atmosphere. Through these interactions, the innovative ability of doctoral students is jointly shaped and enhanced. The cultivation of doctoral students’ innovative ability should be systematically advanced from three dimensions: individual empowerment, practice construction, and ecosystem optimization, to promote the coordinated development of innovative subjects, cognitive levels, behavioral patterns, and the external environment, and effectively stimulate the innovative potential and academic creativity of doctoral students.

To seek a solution to the problem of delayed graduation of doctoral students, this paper analyzes the trend and influencing factors of delayed graduation of doctoral students in China and the United States from an international comparative perspective. The results show that both the rate of recent doctoral students’ postponement and the cumulative postponement rate in China have been rising slowly. Nearly one-third of the current doctoral students are postponement doctoral students, and it is estimated that over 60% of the graduating doctoral students will be postponement doctoral students. The duration of study for doctoral students in the United States has remained at a high level, but it has slightly declined in recent years. From the perspective of influencing factors, the transformation of knowledge production models and the misalignment of the logic of doctoral student training, as well as the expansion of doctoral student enrollment and the imbalance of the training environment in departments and colleges, have shaped the macro background. The disintegration of students with academic culture, relationship networks, and departmental systems has constructed the micro picture. The above factors jointly induce a deviation between the training of doctoral students and the laws of advanced knowledge production, and thus lead to a gradual increase in the rate of delay. To alleviate the current situation of delayed graduation of doctoral students, China urgently needs to improve in the reform of the academic system, the construction of the diversion mechanism and the academic support for doctoral students.

In the era of Big Science, interdisciplinary doctoral training driven by collaboration among diverse knowledge producers has emerged as a critical trend in U.S. research universities’ educational reform. Through cross-boundary integration of independent entities, U.S. research universities and national laboratories have built a fractal innovation ecosystem based on knowledge production mode Ⅲ have developed synergistic organizational frameworks underpinned by innovative partnerships. These frameworks emphasize the co-creation of interdisciplinary platforms and resource-sharing mechanisms for talent, funding, and infrastructure. Key practical strategies include integrated collaborative training programs, rotational training models spanning multiple institutional phases, and project-driven research practicums. Together, these approaches forge an interdisciplinary doctoral education paradigm distinguished by its fusion of theoretical rigor and applied practice. The U.S. experience provides instructive lessons for China. Guided by the national reform agenda integrating education, science, and talent development, China should advance the convergence of research and education to establish institutionalized collaboration mechanisms between elite research universities and national laboratories, thereby accelerating the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents.

The cultivation of foreign-related legal talents is the forerunner and main force of the practice-oriented cultivation mechanism of law schools. Practice-oriented is the first clear orientation of goal in the cultivation of foreign-related legal talents, providing a stable and flexible concept for guidance. Currently, the practice-oriented cultivation of foreign-related legal talents faces three challenges: the lack of precision in the degree setting of universities, the lack of identification of practical needs, and the lack of synergy in the collaborative innovation bases for foreign-related legal talents. In this regard, firstly, a series of appropriate uniform standards should be set up for the mechanism, with the situation of an all-round, multi-level cultivation of foreign-related legal talents in the country. Secondly, colleges and universities and practical departments should fully study the practical demand, utilizing local advantages with regional characteristics for the cultivation of foreign-related legal talents. Finally, rewards and incentives should be set up for practical experts. The “two teachers in one class” mode should be optimized by strengthening the practical qualities of teachers in colleges and universities.

The attribution of academic theses implicates multiple legal and ethical domains, including the Degree Law, Civil Code of the People's Republic of China (Part on Contracts), Copyright Law, and academic ethics. Due to the structural imbalance of power among students, supervisors, and institutions, students often lack genuine autonomy when signing copyright agreements concerning their theses. The current Contract Law framework provides limited remedies for such “non-voluntary” agreements, necessitating administrative guidance and regulatory intervention. Contrary to prevailing practices, Copyright Law analysis reveals that, under certain circumstances, academic theses may qualify as works made for hire, commissioned works, or joint works. The protection of the thesis author’s moral and intellectual interests should be ensured through the requirement of a “mutual intention to create jointly” for joint authorship, and universities should be allowed discretion in this regard based on their educational objectives. Given the limitations of Copyright Law in addressing disputes such as authorship order, academic ethics serve as an indispensable complementary framework. Existing deficiencies in the current system call for localized authorship guidelines, promotion of written authorship agreements, improved mediation and arbitration mechanisms, and the supplementary supervisory role of academic journals.