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 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.

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.

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.

The statistical analysis of vocational education research papers over a period of nine years provides important reference value for promoting the construction of an Independent Knowledge System for vocational education in China, enhancing the level of research, and cultivating research teams. The statistical analysis of 27 educational journals found that public universities and public higher vocational colleges are the main contributors, but the contribution rate of public universities has surpassed that of public higher vocational colleges. “Double First-Class” construction universities and “Double High-Level Plan” vocational colleges have made significant contributions to the publication of papers. Although there are dynamic changes among regions, the absolute dominance of the eastern region remains unchanged. Papers are mainly published with co-authorship, with an increasing proportion of two authors. The authorship of vocational education papers is diverse, reflecting the openness of the research ecosystem. Through comprehensive word frequency screening and analysis, research team have distilled the top ten academic hotspots in vocational education research for 2023, and analyzed the progress, main viewpoints, and research trends.

With the widespread use of Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) tools in academic writing, the impact on postgraduate students in China warrants attention. An analysis of survey data from 14 817 postgraduates reveals that doctoral students have a stronger demand for using AIGC tools to assist in academic writing compared to master’s students. Postgraduates from “Double First-Class” construction universities, those studying in engineering, higher academic years, and those with extrinsic motivations for pursuing studies or perceiving a strong utilitarian publication atmosphere among peers are more likely to use AIGC tools for writing assistance. Postgraduates primarily utilize AIGC tools to assist in searching for materials related to their research topics and translating/refining the language expression in their papers. Postgraduates who use AIGC tools for coursework, translation, or refinement are more likely to recognize the positive impact of these tools on their research efficiency, but their use in research design may hinder the development of academic writing skills. Based on these findings, it is recommended that universities improve academic evaluation standards, and strengthen the development of academic ethical norms and usage skill training for AIGC tools.

The integration of science and education is to place the two systems of scientific research and education in a symbiotic and interdependent development field, and work together to promote talent cultivation and practical activities. As an important intersection of education and scientific research, the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents can achieve synergistic effects in improving the quality of talent cultivation by strengthening their deep integration, and produce significant results beyond simple superposition. The cultivation of top-notch innovative talents needs to follow the laws of education and the development and growth of students’ physical and mental health, break down the barriers between different stages of primary, secondary, and tertiary education, effectively connect higher education and basic education, achieve differentiated cultivation, reasonable extension, and effective connection at different levels of students, and build a systematic and long-term integrated mechanism for the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents in primary, secondary, and tertiary education. The cultivation of top-notch innovative talents should not only break through the existing conventional mode of talent cultivation, but also respect the laws of educational development and talent growth, and carry out targeted and specialized training.

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 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.

STEM education is the fundamental way to cultivate innovative talents, and its importance is further amplified in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI). As a core driving force for shaping new productive capacities, AI is currently empowering the integration of science and education through disruptive technologies. The essence of AI’s role in empowering STEM education lies in creating new scenarios and developing innovative applications. Currently, six new scenarios—gamified learning, socialized learning, collaborative learning, self-directed learning, problem-driven learning, and project-based inquiry learning—have been created. Furthermore, five major categories of large model applications, including evaluation, management, teaching, classroom learning, and extracurricular learning have been developed. The convergence of STEM education and AI aligns with the inherent cycle of “observing phenomena, identifying problems, asking questions, and solving problems”. Ultimately, the success of this integration depends on teachers. The empowerment of artificial intelligence enables the new IQ of human-machine collaboration to surpass the limitations of human IQ itself.

Based on panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2021, a new quality productive forces evaluation index system is constructed using technology productivity, digital productivity, and green productivity as primary indicators to explore the impact mechanism of higher education resource allocation on the development of new quality productive forces. The results indicate that the allocation of higher education resources can promote the development of new quality productive forces and play a mediating role through industrial transformation and upgrading. The impact of higher education resource allocation on the development of new quality productive forces exhibits a “S” - shaped growth cycle with dual threshold effects and spatial spillover effects that benefit neighboring regions. There is heterogeneity in the impact of different geographical regions and resource types as observation points. Based on this, the main direction should be to promote the improvement of technological productivity, and higher education resources should be regarded as key value investments to promote the development of new quality productive forces. Guide the deep integration of the education chain and the industry chain, and respond quickly when traditional growth drivers still have potential and the scale effect of higher education has not reached a turning point. Establish a spatial correlation awareness for the development of new quality productive forces, and optimize the allocation of higher education resources through regional coordinated development.

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.

Social media is widely used in doctoral students. 716 academic doctoral students were studied to explore the influence of social media use motivation and addiction on doctoral students’ academic innovation ability, and the mediating role of social-emotional competence and attention failure. The results showed that some social media addictions exist among the doctoral student population; there are differences in demographic variables such as gender and motivation for doctoral studies; motivation for social media use (cognitive and hedonic) and addiction significantly positively and negatively predicted doctoral students’ academic innovation ability, respectively, with openness to experience, emotional stability and attention failure mediating this predictive relationship. Therefore, colleges and universities should pay attention to the status quo and underlying causes of doctoral students’ social media addiction, pay attention to the construction of good mentoring relationship and students’ academic progress, and pay attention to the cultivation of social-emotional competence among doctoral students.

Switzerland is moving towards a permeable vocational education and training (VET) system through reforms such as the Federal Vocational Baccalaureate, with the aim of guaranteeing learners’ right to an individualized education, meeting the economic and social demand for a highly skilled workforce, promoting lifelong learning for all and ensuring equity in education. A number of laws have been adopted to clarify the meaning and status of the concept of permeability in the Swiss VET system, which is firmly rooted in its own identity and committed to achieving permeability at different levels within it. In order to provide more flexible learning pathways and lifelong learning for all, the Swiss VET system also focuses on permeability with general education and the recognition of informal learning outcomes.

Institutionalized higher education research originated in the United States in the 1960s, with Martin Trow and Burton Clark making unique contributions as pioneers. Since the 1980s, the rise of neoliberalism, the development of globalization, and the expansion of technology have become prominent features of the higher education system. Higher education research needs to conduct in-depth analysis of these developments and their effects. In the new era, the higher education system itself faces new challenges, which mainly include the outcome and fair opportunities of graduates, employment of college students, the social value of higher education, and how to promote more diverse voices and topics. With the rise of the East Asian higher education system, the world’s higher education landscape is undergoing major changes. Countries around the world need to enhance mutual understanding. It is essential to understand their own higher education system and the world’s higher education system through thinking about others.

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.

University faculty’s academic status plays a crucial role in academic governance as it reflects the hierarchical structure of the academic system and enables differentiated support based on institutional classification. Based on the actors’ motivations, opportunities, and interaction forms, this research constructs four mechanisms for configuring the academic status of university faculties: “absorption-embedding” “principal-agent” “induction-response” and “sinking-connection”. By analyzing the process of national talent projects, this study validates and analyzes the actors, underlying logic, operational boundaries, and constraints associated with each mechanism for allocating academic status. The exploration of these mechanisms provides a fresh perspective for evaluating the reform of the academic governance model, by establishing connections between administrative authority, academic prowess, and individual initiative. Additionally, it offers valuable insights to enhance organizational and individual academic vitality, thereby facilitating the high-quality development of the academic profession.

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.

Qian Xuesen’s “Metasynthetic Wisdom Educational Thought” blends the East and the West, the antiquity and the modernity in the concepts of talent cultivation, the practices of the teaching process, and the spirit of education and teaching. It has commonality in the kernel, consistency in the logic, and relevance in the value with the construction of ideological and political education in curriculum in the theory, practice and goal, and has crucial reference significance and value for implementing the fundamental task of enhancing morality and fostering talents. Therefore, in the new era, we can refer to the theoretical essence of “Metasynthetic Wisdom Educational Thought” to cultivate the comprehensive quality of students, firm up the value orientation of education, and guide teachers to cultivate their moral characters, to further promote the construction of ideological and political education in curriculum in the new era.

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.

The openness of disciplines has a positive impact on higher education research and also plays an important role in the construction of the autonomy of the knowledge system of higher education studies. This role is mainly manifested in the fact that openness provides external impetus and resources for the autonomous development of the knowledge system of higher education studies, enabling it to continuously absorb new ideas, theories, and methods, thereby maintaining vitality and innovation. While the autonomy of the knowledge system is the foundation for the realization of the disciplinary attribute of openness in higher education. Only with autonomy can higher education effectively screen, integrate, and apply external information, thereby achieving the improvement and innovation of its own knowledge system. From the perspective of disciplinary openness, actively exploring the construction of the autonomous disciplinary system, academic system, and discourse systems is the basic path to achieving the autonomy of the knowledge system of higher education studies.

Article 40 of the academic degree law empowers degree applicants with the right of academic review through the innovative design of the academic review system, but the incompleteness of relevant laws and regulations makes the academic review right vulnerable to the substantive restrictions of degree-granting units, and the non-independence risk of the academic review system thus appears. The independence theory of academic review system can effectively respond to the theoretical disputes of academic review system and promote the better prevention and resolution of degree disputes, and has a certain theoretical and normative basis. In order to ensure the independent exercise of academic review right and the fair operation of academic review procedure, it is necessary to take the procedural subject status of degree applicants as the logical premise to fully construct the independence theory of academic review system. Complete mechanisms for withdrawal, academic review restriction and evaluation review mechanism should be systematized, degree applicants should be explicitly allowed to seek external relief, and the relevant relief authorities should focus on the independence of the academic review process.

The layout of vocational education at the higher level is related to the integrity of the modern vocational education system and the diversity of the universalization phase of higher education. In Germany, vocational education has a hybrid form and an independent form at the higher level. The former is a vocational-academic hybrid education aimed at granting (initial) vocational qualifications and academic qualifications at the same time, represented by the dual higher education; the latter is the advanced vocational education that focuses on the German advanced vocational qualifications, with a coherent vocational advancement path and a three-level qualification system. Germany hopes to create a “higher vocational education and training” brand by using the title of “professional expert-professional bachelor-professional master”. The layout of higher forms of vocational education in Germany can provide reflections on the functional orientation and level division of vocational education for the construction of “vocational education at undergraduate level” in China.

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.

Higher education should fully leverage its function as a gathering point and important connecting point for educational and technological talents, and promote the cultivation of scientific and technological talents through structural optimization. Optimize the disciplinary structure and enhance the ability to cultivate talents in science and engineering. Optimize the hierarchical structure, improve the training level of graduate students in science, engineering, agriculture, and medicine, and strengthen the training of professional graduate students, especially professional doctoral students. Optimize the type structure and expand the scale of scientific and technological talents cultivation in universities under the “Double First-Class” construction. Optimize the regional layout structure, establish a technology talent training system that is compatible with the science and technology innovation cluster, and meet the development needs of the world’s important talent centers and innovation highlands.

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.

Exploring the cultivation models for top-notch innovative talents in basic academic disciplines is crucial for building China into a leading country in education. Based on the policy implementation process model, the study interviewed 25 students and found that: contradictions arise during policy implementation, including the difficulty in aligning standardized national exams with autonomous enrollment of universities, the conflict between diverse talent needs and homogenized training plans, and the deviation of through-training target and single talent export. At the institutional level, the education department’s evaluation system is misaligned, and pilot universities face challenges like goal convergence, selection deviating from initial intentions, and fragmented internal management. Colleges also suffer from weak management, insufficient guidance, and unequal resource distribution. In terms of the implementation environment, factors such as intensified academic competition, incomplete supervision, variations in levels of family support, and negative media reports hinder policy effectiveness. Among students, shifts in academic interests, pursuit of prestigious schools, mismatch between students’ motivation and capabilities, and disconnection between competition and non-competition students are observed. It is recommended to enhance the clarity and scientific basis of the policy, improve institutional implementation capacity, optimize the policy environment, establish a feedback mechanism, and strengthen students’ understanding and acceptance of the policy.

Promoting academic entrepreneurship is of great significance to accelerate the formation of new quality productivity. Through the survey and analysis of 331 engineering teachers from “Double First-Class” construction universities, it was found that intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentive (economic remuneration, feedback research, career development) positively affect academic entrepreneurship intentions; Faculty role identity fully mediated the relationship between career development and academic entrepreneurship intentions, and it partially mediated the relationship between intrinsic motivation, economic rewards, research support and entrepreneurship intentions. The organizational support have an obvious negative adjustment effect on the relationship between economic rewards and academic entrepreneurship intentions. Further heterogeneity analysis shows that the effects of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentive on the efficiency of academic entrepreneurship are different in entrepreneurship forms and career development stages. It is recommended that university administrators should cultivate entrepreneurial culture to promote the role identity of entrepreneurship, formulate differentiated incentive policies according to different academic entrepreneurship forms and career development stages, and make dynamic adjustments according to the changes in the organizational environment.

Dissertations are important scientific research achievements. Effective management of dissertations helps to promote the utilization of the scientific research results. Current dissertation management system has a series of problems such as weak legal basis for deposit, a risk of copyright infringement in communication, and lack of effective distribution mechanism. In view of the above problems, we can revise the mechanism for the deposit of dissertations by amending the Academic Degrees Law; We can also promote the distribution and utilization of dissertations by amending the Copyright Law and refining the licensing procedures.

Joint university-enterprise training is an important way to strengthen the cooperative relationship between universities and industries, which occupies an important position in the national innovation system and education system. On the basis of reviewing the history of cooperative education in the United States, analyzing the needs of industrial development and sorting out its government-industry-academia-research system, we have extracted three types of joint university-enterprise doctoral programs in the United States from the perspective of the cultivation subject, namely government-led, university-led and enterprise (industry) association-led, and summarized three types of cultivation modes from the perspective of the cultivation program, namely, synergistic, collaborative and segmented. In general, the U.S. focuses on key industrial fields, relies on industrial research centers and major scientific and technological platforms, and introduces policies and norms to guarantee the effective operation of joint doctoral training programs through multi-channel and sustainable funding sources. Drawing on the experience of the U.S. joint doctoral training programs, it is recommended to promote the close integration of the joint training programs with the national demand, strengthen the flexibility and standardization of the joint training programs, and stimulate the enthusiasm of enterprises to participate in the joint training programs, so as to comprehensively improve the quality and effectiveness of the joint training of doctoral students in China.

Clarifying the relationship between research and teaching is of great significance in promoting teachers’ professional development and improving the quality of talent cultivation. Teachers in undergraduate colleges and universities across the country were analysed to examine the relationship between their research ability and teaching quality. The results show that: there is a significant promotion effect of college teachers’ research ability on their teaching quality; the impact of research ability on teaching awards of science and engineering teachers is lower than that of humanities and social sciences teachers, the impact of research ability on teaching awards of “Double First-Class” university teachers is lower than that of non-“Double First-Class” university teachers; teachers’ research ability improves the teaching quality by affecting their affective teaching engagement and behavioural teaching engagement. In order to improve teachers’ teaching quality, we should promote the development mode of “promoting teaching by research”, carry out the promotion strategy of “classified management” and implement the training program of “subject guidance”.

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.

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.

Knowledge accumulation is the basis of the construction of knowledge system in higher education studies. Based on the review of academic history, the accumulation of modern higher education knowledge and its “disciplinarization” construction began in the West. Since modern times, China’s higher education knowledge has gradually accumulated from western texts and local practices, and with the establishment of higher education studies, it has been endowed with the mission and appeal of the construction of subject knowledge system. At present, China’s higher education knowledge accumulation has obvious “anti-disciplinary” characteristics, mainly manifested in the “take-ism” and fast-foodization of accumulation methods, the instrumentalism and fragmentation of accumulation contents, and the superficiality and inherent inertia of accumulation degrees, which fundamentally restricts the practical foundation, the essence of the knowledge system of higher education, as well as its in-depth construction. The key to solve the problem is to set up the “discipline position” of knowledge accumulation in higher education, to promote the construction of the knowledge system of higher education studies by restoring the practical source of knowledge accumulation, deepening the level and structure of knowledge accumulation and stimulating the discipline consciousness of the subject of knowledge accumulation.

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.

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.

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the governance of higher education has roughly gone through three paths: direct government management (1949-1997), partial empowerment management (1998-2011), and exploration of collaborative governance (2012 present). Entering the era of artificial intelligence, the existing governance paths of higher education in China have shown signs of difficulty. Currently, there are still realistic dilemmas such as a weak sense of government boundaries, low social participation, higher education reform’s habit of self-referential institutional logic, the need for further clarification of role positioning, and lagging construction of governance rules and methods. In view of this, it is proposed to embed the “technological governance path” into the existing higher education governance mechanism, enabling higher education governance to move from “hierarchically fragmented and segmentary division” to “integrated operation based on digital space”, from “reactive governance” to “predictive governance”, and from “fuzzy decision-making based on experience” to “precise decision-making driven by data”. At the same time, to avoid adverse effects of artificial intelligence empowerment on higher education governance, it is suggested to establish a higher education governance concept that emphasizes both technology and humanity, build a governance foundation that takes into account both materiality and normativity, and implement a governance model that combines openness and security.