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.

Based on a survey of university teachers from undergraduate universities across the nation, this study adopts latent profile analysis to investigate the typological characteristics, work performance, and intervention strategies related to job burnout among university teachers in China. The results reveal four latent types of job burnout: low burnout (62.1%), relatively high burnout (27.1%), low sense of achievement (5.8%), and exhaustion(5.0%). Among these, teachers with low burnout demonstrate the best work performance, followed by those with a low sense of achievement, while those categorized as exhausted and relatively high burnout exhibit poorer performance. Organizational emotional support, organizational instrumental support, research pressure, teaching pressure, and the pressure of balancing teaching and research significantly predict different types of teacher burnout. Universities should provide tailored organizational support for teachers of various burnout types, reform teacher evaluation systems to enhance the sense of achievement in teaching, and improve the classification management system to alleviate the pressure of balancing teaching and research.

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 ongoing statistical analysis and tracking of academic hotspots in higher education research papers over the past 20 years provide crucial support and reference for accelerating the high-quality development of higher education. A study on 23 of the most influential education journals reveals an imbalance in the output of higher education research papers among different types of institutions. Public undergraduate universities dominate as the main contributors, with a significant proportion of publications coming from “Double First-Class”construction universities. High-contribution institutions account for a large share, while other types of institutions show low participation. Meanwhile, diverse institutions such as education administrative departments, educational research institutions, and overseas institutions are actively engaged in higher education research, demonstrating strong openness and integration.Based on keyword frequency analysis and expert opinions, the top ten academic hotspots in higher education research for this year have been identified. An analysis and assessment of their research progress, key viewpoints, and trends have been conducted.

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.

Article 37(3) of the Academic Degrees Law serves as a catch-all provision for revoking academic degrees, covering both academic and non-academic grounds. By linking revocation grounds to the conditions required for initial degree conferment, the clause allows any breach of those conditions to potentially trigger revocation proceedings. However, actual revocation is warranted only when the conduct constitutes a “serious violation”. For academic misconduct, a “serious violation” must satisfy all three criteria: (a) the conduct falls within a category that university rules deem disqualifying for degree conferment; (b) the offending research output has been publicly disseminated; and (c) the conduct involves ghost-writing, plagiarism, or other forms of academic dishonesty of comparable severity. Serious non-academic breaches involve violations of the political or moral prerequisites for degree conferment. A serious political breach must constitute a crime of a political nature under the Criminal Law. A serious moral breach must violate either the Criminal Law or the Public Security Administration Punishments Law and be morally reprehensible. Crucially, revocation is justified only when such misconduct infringes upon the legal interests protected by the Academic Degrees Law, as manifested by causing significant negative social impact or seriously damaging the university’s reputation.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The empowering potential contained in emerging technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence is driving universities in their era to prioritize improving their governance intelligence as an important task for their future development. The combination of administrative actions and algorithms is driving algorithmic administration in university governance practice, and the algorithmic power demonstrated by it exhibits characteristics such as relationality, technicality, structural nature, and secrecy in the governance process. In the process of digital and intelligent governance in universities, phenomena such as changes and imbalances in the “power rights” empowerment/enabling structure, adjustments and dissolution the legitimate of governance due process triggered by technological simplism, and the formation and dilemma of technological/digital bureaucracy have emerged. To stimulate the governance effectiveness of algorithmic administration in universities, it is necessary to highlight the transformation from information technology popularization to the application of digital intelligence in the governance concept, highlight the incremental logic of algorithmic administration in university digital governance, and achieve the coordinated promotion of power expansion and rights protection in governance actions.

Significant achievements have been made in commercializing scientific and technological (S&T) achievements in Chinese universities. However, on the incentive mechanism, it needs to be seriously summarized in the experience and practices of reform and innovation, so as to further improve relevant policies, and accelerate the reform of three systems, such as individual column management of the transformation of service S&T advances, the evaluation of technology transfer talents and professional titles, and the investment of residual funds from horizontal scientific research projects for the transformation of S&T advances. The incentive mechanism reform of S&T advances transformation should be further people-oriented, such as asset management should pay more attention to the special characteristics of intangible assets by S&T advances, evaluation reform should further strengthen categorized assessment, horizontal research funding reform should further expand the autonomy of S&T personnel, and comprehensive reform of universities should further unclog blockages of incentive mechanism, so as to effectively solve the problems of some universities and their accomplisher of S&T advances being afraid to transfer, unwilling to transfer, and lacking funds to transfer.

Humanities and social sciences education has drawn attention from various interest groups, with the issue of “too many humanities and social sciences undergraduates” becoming a point of debate. Behind this controversy lies the reality of difficult employment and low returns for the undergraduates. Comparative studies across countries reveal that the core issue is structural rather than one of scale, reflecting inadequate internal planning of programs and a mismatch between educational goals and market demands. Therefore, nations should clarify the development of humanities and social sciences disciplines and balance academic structures. Enterprises need to comprehensively assess the competence of humanities and social sciences students and strengthen ties with humanities and social sciences education. Universities should focus on cultivating core competencies, deepening educational reform in the new liberal arts. Individuals should understand and respect disciplinary differences. To promote multiple entities collaborate for the high quality development of the humanities and social sciences education.

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.

Promoting the deepening application of artificial intelligence in university teaching is a crucial issue facing the digital transformation of higher education in China today, and it urgently needs to be explored in depth. Based on this, the study adopts a perspective shifting from “AI exclusion” to “AI empowerment”. By clarifying the concepts of “AI exclusion” and “AI empowerment”, it reveals that “AI exclusion” specifically manifests as ideological exclusion, institutional exclusion, organizational exclusion, and knowledge exclusion. These forms of exclusion follow diverse generative logics rooted in cognitive ideologies, policy systems, organizational structures, and knowledge transmission. In response to the real dilemma of “AI exclusion”, these orientations promote paradigmatic innovation across four dimensions: ideology, institutions, organizations, and knowledge. To eliminate “exclusion” and achieve “empowerment”, this study proposes a four-in-one integrated action pathway: “innovative theory + institutional establishment + organizational regeneration + contextual transformation”, aiming to deepen the application of artificial intelligence in university.

In order to promote faculties’ teaching engagement, governments and universities have invested many resources, but the substantive impacts of them remains to be evaluated. Based on conservation of resource theory, this study explores various resources on teachers’ engagement. Findings show that at the university level, library resources and subjective perception of teaching support have a positive impact on teacher engagement, with the latter having a stronger effect; being a “Double First-Class” construction university negatively affects teacher engagement; the impact of spatial and financial resources on teacher engagement is not significant. At the individual level, faculties’ sense of teaching efficacy positively influences teacher engagement. Finally, at the cross-level, there is a substitution effect between college library resources and faculties’ teaching self-efficacy, where library resources can more effectively compensate for low efficacy, thereby promoting greater teaching engagement.

Based on survey data from national educational doctoral training institutions, this study analyzes the impact mechanisms of different learning motivations on the academic achievements of educational doctoral students. The results show that the impact mechanisms of different learning motivations on academic achievement vary; academic interest motivation enhances ability development and learning satisfaction, while utilitarian orientation facilitates degree completion, with learning engagement playing a crucial role. Furthermore, there are significant differences in the factors influencing the two types of motivations. Academic interest motivation is more influenced by intrinsic factors such as academic atmosphere, mentor guidance, and curriculum teaching, while utilitarian motivation is more influenced by extrinsic factors like peer assistance and academic management. The study also found that the learning motivations of educational doctoral students have a clear practical orientation, not just knowledge accumulation and paper publication, which is in line with the original purpose of establishing the degree. Therefore, universities should optimize institutional arrangements, clarify the professional positioning and training objectives of educational doctoral programs, emphasize the applicability, practicality, and innovation, create a favorable environment, adjust and optimize learning motivations, and stimulate learning engagement.

With the wide application of artificial intelligence technology, the gap in the demand for artificial intelligence rule of law talents is bound to further expand. AI empowerment, education takes the lead. Examining the specific practice of cultivating AI rule of law talents in China’s law schools and colleges, there are mainly four aspects, such as new disciplinary directions, new curriculum system, new specialized institutions, and new degree programs, etc. At the same time, there are also problems such as inconsistency in the title of the relevant disciplines, lack of clarity in the objectives of the curriculum, lack of depth in the implementation of the degree program, and instability in the operation of the newly established virtual scientific research institutions. These problems will lead to the supply of AI rule of law talents in China’s law schools to meet the needs of the times. In view of this, China’s law schools need to unify the“law + artificial intelligence” related secondary discipline title - “artificial intelligence jurisprudence”, according to the“technology-based”“artificial intelligence”. According to the different cultivation objectives of “technical” and “regulatory”, the curriculum system should be reconstructed, the undergraduate degree program should be implemented in conjunction with postgraduate education, and a collaborative cultivation platform should be set up, so as to cultivate AI rule of law talents to meet the needs of the times.

The training of top-notch innovative talents in China is mostly promoted in the way of special plans, reflecting the typical characteristics of the project system. The recruitment selection, organizational form, governance mechanism and development path follow the project system “selecting the best”“special office”“project system-bureaucracy system” dual-track interaction and the logic of “pilot-promotion” respectively. In the new period, the operation of the project system of training top-notch innovative talents in China faces the tension between the logic of “selecting the best” and the pursuit of fairness and human nature; the logic of “specialized office” and the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents emphasize the tension of openness; the “dual-track interaction” logic and the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents emphasize the tension of fully releasing the independent vitality of colleges and universities; the tension between the logic of “pilot-promotion” and the long-term and holistic characteristics of top-notch innovative talent training. In view of this, in the future, it is necessary to establish a fair and people-oriented cultivation concept of top-notch innovative talents, create a relaxed cultivation ecology conducive to the personalized development of talents, release the independent vitality of colleges and universities in the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents, and establish a long-term overall coordination and connection of top-notch innovative talents training system.

Based on the perspective of economic network analysis, this study systematically defines the theoretical connotation of a globally influential education center, proposing a potential transition from single-center model to multi-center model. The evolutionary process of emerging centers may give rise to new configurations of education centers, which represent the target form for elevating China’s development of education center. The study posits that a novel worldview in education, by guiding the transformation of educational paradigms, provides a philosophical foundation for these new configurations. Through analyzing domestic and international trends in educational development and open cooperation practices, the research reveals both opportunities and challenges in constructing such centers. Building on this analysis, the study discusses policy pathways to propel progress, including deepening international educational collaborations and communications by adhering to a neo-worldview in education; improving institutional mechanisms to empower talent cultivation through “inbound” and “outbound” strategies; and modernizing governance systems and capabilities for foreign-related education security.

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.

Intensive counseling activities, centered around one-on-one conversation between undergraduates college counselors, serve as an innovative approach for assisting high-achieving low-income undergraduates’adaptation college life, eliminating potential inequality in educational process and outcome. Focusing on intensive counseling activities within the “Yanyuan Qihang Program” of the Student Financial Aid Center at Peking University, this paper investigates the impact of these activities on the development of high-achieving low-income undergraduates, as well as the role of counselors. Based on self-authorship theory and learning partnership model, quantitative analysis finds that intensive counseling significantly enhances students’general and professional abilities. Qualitative analysis reveals that “seeing”, “empathizing”, and “giving a man a fish and teaching him how to fish” are the three major strategies for counselors in conducting intensive counseling. During the intensive counseling process, counselors have transformed from supervisors and managers to companions and supporters, and students have transformed from “dependence” to “autonomy”. Universities shall enhance their external support system for intensive counseling, in order to maximize the impact of non-financial support for high-achieving low-income undergraduates.

Outstanding engineers are the national strategic scientific and technological force for achieving breakthroughs in engineering technology innovation and leading industrial transformation. Enterprise participation in the training process of excellent engineer is an important way to train practical ability, innovation ability and complex problem-solving ability. This paper, based on interview data from 13 enterprises, employs a qualitative research three-level coding strategy to investigate the influencing factors and mechanisms of enterprises’ participation in the collaborative training of outstanding engineers. The study reveals that enterprises’ engagement in the collaborative training of outstanding engineers is a dynamic feedback loop mechanism driven by the sequence of “motivation-intention-behavior-outcome”. The motivation for enterprises’ involvement stems from internal drivers such as demand pull and external drivers like market push. Factors such as their own objective conditions, business philosophy, environmental elements, and other stakeholders influence enterprises’ willingness to participate. The behavior of enterprises during the participation process is influenced by factors including cooperation goals, cooperative investment, guarantee mechanisms, and organizational heterogeneity.

The National Special Plan is a major preferential admission measure implemented by key universities in China towards underdeveloped areas. In order to explore the non-academic adaptation of National Special Plan students in their first year after enrollment, based on the theory of mismatch hypothesis, cultural reproduction and resilience theories, this study uses longitudinal survey data from a “Double First-Class” university, and employs a framework of value-added assessment. It is found that at the initial stage of entering the university, the students from National Special Plan have a disadvantage in terms of psychological adaptation and economic consumption adaptation. During the freshman year, the value-added of psychological adaptation is significant, and by the end of the freshman year, there is no significant difference between two types of students, but the disadvantage of economic consumption adaptation persists throughout the freshman year. Further analysis shows that among all kinds of department support activities, National Special Plan students are more involved in “courses or guidance on interpersonal communication and adaptation” during their freshman year, and there is a significant correlation between this activity and psychological adaptation of National Special Plan students. Moreover, these results provide relevant suggestions for the non-academic adaptation of students from National Special Plan.

How to realize the cognitive paradigm shift from “knowledge possession” to “knowledge creation” is still a black box that needs to be revealed. Through in-depth interviews with 20 students of the “Pilot Reform Program of Enrollment for Basic Disciplines”, it was found that their cognitive paradigm shift manifested itself in a shift from “strong knowledge inertia” to “constructive innovation”. Among them, cognitive conflict is not the inevitable cause of the paradigm shift; rather, the more direct driving force is higher-order cognitive engagement. Driven by self-awareness and self-regulation, motivation for innovation and metacognitive experience indirectly influence the cognitive paradigm shift. Along with the cyclical process of reflective monitoring, students in the “Pilot Reform Program of Enrollment for Basic Disciplines” undergo a cognitive paradigm shift as they continuously expand their thinking and practice new skills. Therefore, universities can cultivate a disruptive mindset in “Pilot Reform Program of Enrollment for Basic Disciplines” students towards traditional paradigms through approaches such as a “scenario-based” training model. This approach allows students to integrate real-world experiences with theoretical knowledge in groundbreaking and revolutionary research practices, ultimately transforming knowledge into wisdom and fostering innovation that challenges established norms and paves the way for new paradigms.

Scholarships, as a key form of financial aid, reward excellence and promote all-around development of college student. This study revealed that there are certain differences in the background characteristics of the students who receive scholarships. Obtaining a scholarship helps improve students’ academic performance and promotes the development of their knowledge, abilities, and self - awareness. The positive effect of scholarships on students’ learning and development is manifested through increased learning input, especially emotional input. In the future, it is necessary to adhere to the principle of universality of the scholarship policy, expand the group of beneficiary students, optimize the evaluation criteria, and strengthen the value - added evaluation of students’ abilities and qualities. Additionally, a scientific tracking system for the implementation effect of scholarships should be established to regularly evaluate and provide feedback on their actual financial aid effects. Potential problems that may be caused by the scholarship system also need to be guarded against, so as to further give play to the function of scholarships in “rewarding excellence and educating students” and improve the quality of talent cultivation in colleges and universities.

The supervisor-postgraduate relationship is a key part of the graduate education governance system, which is connected with the three core subjects of university, supervisor and postgraduate. In order to understand the behavior choice of supervisor-postgraduate relationship, the interaction logic and practical dilemma of supervisor-postgraduate relationship are analyzed from the perspective of principal agent theory. It is concluded that the supervisor-postgraduate relationship in the graduate education governance system presents a dual principal-agent model, including the formal principal-agent relationship established by contract between universities and supervisors and the informal principal-agent relationship formed by psychological contract between supervisors and postgraduates. Due to the interaction logic of “goal compatibility-information symmetry”, coupled with the institutional structure constraints such as vertical pressure, rigid target, resource dependence and comprehensive assessment in universities, the education-oriented model has been declining rationally, the managerialism model has become prevalent, the distribution negotiation model has been difficult to maintain and the conflict and confrontation model has become increasingly frequent in the supervisor-postgraduate relationship. In the future, it is necessary to utilize incentive theory, reputation mechanism, incentive compatibility mechanism, promote the trinity reform of universities, supervisor and postgraduates in the graduate education governance system, optimize the graduate training environment comprehensively, so as to improve the overall efficiency of our country’s high-level talent training model.

Based on provincial panel data from 2012 to 2021, this study explores the impact mechanism of the transformation of scientific and technological (S&T) achievements in universities on the development of new quality productive forces. The results show that such transformation drives the development of new quality productive forces, mediated by talent agglomeration and regional innovation and entrepreneurship. Industrial structure upgrading and high-tech industry agglomeration exert positive moderating effects. Moreover, university-industry collaboration and government support exhibit threshold effects with increasing marginal returns, while an optimal range of financial development is identified. Accordingly, efforts should focus on promoting the coordinated development of scientific, digital, and green productive forces, creating a high-quality ecosystem to comprehensively support the transformation of S&T achievements in universities. Strategic industrial layout adjustments should proactively guide and absorb the spillover of achievements, addressing barriers to industrialization. A combination of measures integrating S&T transformation with deep university-industry collaboration should be employed to identify the optimal financial support range for enhancing new quality productive forces. Finally, a differentiated support system for the transformation of S&T achievements in universities should be established to encourage regionally differentiated development.

China’s talent cultivation models demonstrate typological diversity and complex evolutionary paths. From the dual tension perspective of “local-international” and “traditional-innovative”, the talent cultivation models of Chinese universities can be identified as four ideal types: “international academic inheritance”, “international innovation leading”, “local cultural preservation” and “local innovation priority”. These types have a dynamic, interactive evolution driven by multiple factors such as disciplinary development needs and national policy guidance. Talent cultivation models in Chinese universities should balance global competition and local adaptation, as well as knowledge accumulation and innovative breakthroughs, to achieve the functional and strategic positioning of China’s higher education development.

Article 31 of the Degree Law has added a clause on degree quality assurance, requiring degree conferring institutions to “timely disclose relevant information and accept social supervision” in order to ensure the quality of degree conferring, however, the most crucial mechanism for social supervision of the quality of academic dissertations is essentially lacking in China. At present, not only have degree conferring institutions not chosen to actively accept social supervision by promoting the disclosure of their degree theses, but public libraries and commercial databases are also difficult to become platforms for the public to supervise the quality of degree theses. Establishing a social supervision mechanism for the quality of degree theses is not only an inherent requirement for public as taxpayers participation in financial performance evaluation, but also helps to make up for the shortcomings of existing mechanisms for supervising the quality of degree theses. Therefore, it is necessary to first promote instant open access to degree these, secondly establish a unified platform for open access to degree theses by the National Library, and finally improve the system for reporting academic misconduct in degree theses. In the future, Article 31 of the Degree Law should further improve the social supervision mechanism for the quality of degree theses.

The quasi public product characteristics of higher education determine the appropriateness and urgency of introducing government regulation theory to analyze the external quality assurance system of higher education in China. Government regulation has rich connotations in terms of the quality of higher education, manifested in the national will to accelerate the construction of a high-quality education system, the national discourse reflecting Chinese wisdom and solutions, the national order highlighting the advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, and the national need to cultivate high-quality talents of various types. An unavoidable issue is that government regulation also faces the possibility of “regulatory failure”. Characterized by: the layered reinforcement of policy objectives and monitoring from a political perspective, the layered attenuation of policy tools and feedback, and doubts about the authority and legitimacy of government regulation; The emergence of “economic agents” with bounded rationality, rationality, and self-interest determined by incomplete information from an economic perspective; From a cultural perspective, the emphasis is on politics over efficiency, and on human relationships over the rule of law. Following the logic of “external change-internal improvement”, the “regulatory governance” advocates relaxing regulations, incentivizing regulations, cooperating regulations, and legal regulations, providing new ideas and ways to optimize the external quality assurance system of higher education in China.

The mismatch of labor market between the talent cultivation in higher education and the demand for high-quality skilled talents highlights the importance of developing higher vocational education. The integration between higher vocational education and industry has obvious spatial-temporal stages and regional heterogeneity. The overall development level is relatively low, but the linkage effect is steadily enhancing. Influenced by the positive externalities of human capital and scale economies effect of industrial transfer, the developing of higher vocational education has great spatial spillover effect in industrial innovation, demonstrating on significant conditional β-convergence process and steady club convergence between regions. Therefore, the spatial linkage mechanism between higher vocational education and industry layout should showcase the characteristics of regional resource endowment fully. Ground work is keep pace with the direction of the flow of high-quality skilled talents for the layout of institutions and disciplines, which provides power sources for both the construction of modern industrial system with all efforts and empowerment and the formation of innovative new quality productive force.

Student financial aid is an important means to ensure educational fairness and the rational allocation of resources. Funding education is the foothold of student financial aid. This paper takes undergraduate students in universities in Beijing, Shanghai and Zhejiang as the research objects，and conducts investigation and empirical analysis on the effect of student financial aid. The study finds that the scale and structure of financial aid and the environment of financial aid have a positive impact on the effect of student financial aid, and the individual orientation of students plays an intermediary role in the path of affecting the effect; the heterogeneity analysis based on regions and university types shows that the funding environment has a particularly significant impact on the funding effect of universities. In order to improve the effect of funding education, while improving the coverage and accuracy of funding, we should optimize the allocation of educational resources and strengthen multi-coordination.

Using qualitative research methods and policy instruments theory, this study analyzed valid responses of 4432 college students to the open-ended question “Suggestions on Promoting the All-round Development of Morality, Intelligence, Physical, Aesthetic, and Labor Education in College Entrance Examination (CEE) Comprehensive Reform” in “CEE Reform Questionnaire Survey”, the results show the following: The promotion of students’ all-round development through CEE papers is difficult to measure uniformly and may cause limitations in exam-oriented education. However, it can promote the four aspects through intellectual education, and improve its quality; To promote the all-round development through subject-selection system, it is necessary to strengthen the matching of high-school career planning education and the construction of teaching staff, and optimize scoring mechanism and enrollment plan allocation; The comprehensive quality evaluation promotes the all-round development, facing urban-rural and family differences. The content design and practical operation still need to be improved. The authors suggest grasping the dialectical unity between all-round development and individuality; Reasonably use CEE papers, subject selection, and comprehensive quality evaluation; Correctly understand the promoting effect of CEE reform on the all-round development.

The integration of industry and education is the essential feature and basic mode of vocational education, and the development of vocational undergraduate is an important measure to build a modern vocational education system. In the face of complex environmental factors, the integration model of industry and education in private vocational undergraduates presents the characteristics of diverse resources and heterogeneous attributes, and is developing from single-subject dominance to dual-subject co-construction to multi-subject collaboration. The operation mechanism of the integration of industry and education is characterized by “flow”, focusing on the smooth flow of diverse resources of industry and education, and the mutual embedding of heterogeneous attributes, which is composed of mechanisms such as resource supply, professional construction, curriculum practice, and achievement sharing, so as to meet multiple needs and be driven by the protection of multi-subject interests, forming a “demand-benefit symbiosis” mechanism. The in-depth integration of industry and education in private vocational undergraduates requires diversified development of the main force and deepening the integration of industry and education; Diversify and innovate organizational forms, and promote collaborative governance in an organized manner; Multi-dimensional to improve the operation mechanism, focus on optimizing the systematic design.

Perceived educational attainment is a crucial dimension in assessing the quality of higher vocational education. By integrating multiple theories, a theoretical model comprising four dimensions—learning experience, support experience, personal growth, and career experience—is proposed. Based on survey data across 20 higher vocational colleges nationwide, confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the model structure, and multilevel linear modeling was employed to analyze the influences and interactions of factors at individual, major, and institutional levels. The findings reveal that: While higher vocational college students generally report high levels of perceived educational attainment, there is room for improvement in personal growth and the ability to cope with future challenges; Key influencing factors include learning engagement, teaching quality of the major, employment prospects, institutional level, teaching resources, and campus climate; Differences among student groups are moderated by factors such as institutional teaching resources, level of schooling, employment prospects of the major, and overall campus climate.