Think Tank

Scale expansion cannot dilute the 'type background'

2025-08-19   

Recently, the enrollment data of vocational undergraduate colleges in many regions for 2025 shows that the enrollment scale of some majors has expanded, and the admission scores have continued to rise, surpassing the traditional undergraduate line and even the special control line significantly. As for the newly established vocational undergraduate program at Beijing University of Science and Technology, its admission line has significantly exceeded the undergraduate control line. Meanwhile, the admission scores for vocational undergraduate programs in provinces such as Guangdong, Hunan, and Jiangxi are all showing an upward trend. This reflects the transformation of social cognition and industrial upgrading, reflecting the society's thirst for high skilled talents and students' demands for diversified development. In the context of the popularization of higher education, vocational undergraduate education, as an important component of the national education system, has rapidly expanded in scale, which has become a realistic trend. However, with the rapid expansion of enrollment scale, the development of vocational undergraduate education also faces many challenges. For example, some vocational undergraduate colleges lack a clear understanding of the "vocational nature" of vocational education in the pursuit of upgrading or expanding enrollment, blurring the direction of talent cultivation and becoming a "low-end version" of general higher education. In my opinion, the expansion of scale should not dilute the unique "type background" of vocational education, nor should it blur its boundary with ordinary undergraduate education. How to adhere to the type positioning in the new development stage and ensure the healthy and distinctive development of vocational undergraduate programs has become an urgent educational proposition. Deepen the integration of industry and education, and strengthen the core pillar of "type background". The core mission of vocational undergraduate education is to cultivate high-level technical and skilled talents who meet the needs of national development, can solve complex on-site problems, promote technological innovation, and possess both exquisite skills and theoretical literacy. To this end, the key to adhering to the "type background" of vocational undergraduate education is to take the systematic, deep level, and institutionalized integration of industry and education as the lifeline. Relevant universities should collaborate with leading enterprises to jointly develop training standards, research and implement strategies, jointly build training bases and industrial colleges, and deeply promote the substantive participation of industry leading enterprises in school governance, such as establishing a board of directors or council, giving them moderate decision-making power in professional planning, curriculum design, teaching arrangements, and faculty evaluation, to ensure that talent cultivation keeps up with the pulse of industrial development. To create a symbiotic platform for the integration of industry and education, surpassing the traditional school enterprise cooperation model, jointly building industrial colleges, collaborative innovation centers and other platforms that integrate technology research and development, process tackling, and talent cultivation, forming a "teaching production research and development teaching" loop, achieving synchronous iteration of talent cultivation and industrial technology upgrading, and solving the problem of lagging vocational education. Shenzhen Vocational and Technical University has jointly established multiple characteristic industry colleges with industry leaders, embedding real R&D projects of enterprises into education and teaching processes such as curriculum system reconstruction, teaching evaluation and feedback, and quality assurance. Promote project-based teaching reform, using real technical problems or engineering projects from enterprises as carriers, reconstructing teaching content and processes, allowing students to integrate knowledge, hone skills, and cultivate professional spirit in solving practical problems. It can be said that the integration of industry and education is a bridge that breaks down the barriers between education and industry, and promotes a close connection between the two. It is also the most distinctive symbol that distinguishes vocational education undergraduate programs from ordinary undergraduate programs. Implementing curriculum restructuring to highlight the unique logic of the "technical discipline". The curriculum system of vocational undergraduate education urgently needs to break through the traditional disciplinary framework, adhere to the four-dimensional goal positioning of knowledge, ability, quality, and career development, take "technical knowledge" as the core, break the "undergraduate compression cookie style", "vocational extension line style" or "undergraduate vocational mixed style" model, and construct a progressive modular curriculum structure logic system based on real work scenarios of "curriculum subject curriculum group comprehensive project". Adopting a project-based, personalized, and layered curriculum teaching model, optimizing curriculum implementation strategies, and strengthening the application scenarios and structuring of technical knowledge. Beyond fragmented skill training, systematically sorting out knowledge elements such as core principles, process methods, technical standards, and management processes in specific technical fields, forming a knowledge graph that supports the solution of complex technical problems. Optimize the structure of theoretical and practical courses, enhance logical connections, and achieve the integration of practical theory. Abandoning the inertia and linear thinking of "theory first, practice later", creating a fusion learning environment with distinct industrial characteristics, allowing students to naturally acquire necessary theoretical knowledge in solving technical problems, improve technical practical abilities, and achieve the integration of knowledge and action. Keeping up with the forefront of technology, dynamically upgrading the curriculum system, integrating the latest developments in industry technology, standard changes, and cutting-edge trends into the course content, establishing a rapid update and iteration mechanism for course content, achieving resonance between classroom teaching and technological updates, and ensuring the cutting-edge and applicability of graduates' technical abilities. This curriculum system based on the logic of "technical disciplines" is the fundamental guarantee for the high-level and irreplaceable nature of vocational education undergraduate programs. Promote evaluation reform and form a distinct typological orientation. Establishing an evaluation system that conforms to the characteristics of vocational undergraduate education is the guiding baton for its healthy development. We should break away from traditional academic single evaluation, leverage the advantages of digitization, adopt an evaluation management model of "internal and external linkage", "multi-point control", "online and offline", and "dynamic and static combination", and establish a value-added and process evaluation system that is capability based and involves multiple parties. Develop multidimensional standards for student evaluation, abandon the "academic knowledge center" standard, break away from the "score only" theory, and construct comprehensive ability evaluation standards that include complex technical problem-solving ability, process optimization ability, technological innovation application ability, project management ability, career development ability, on-site learning ability, etc. Emphasize the output oriented approach, taking technical solutions, prototype products, process improvement reports, etc. as important output results, and focusing on assessing students' ability to solve complex problems and technological innovation literacy. Emphasize the professional evaluation of teachers, reduce the weight of traditional academic papers, and focus on evaluating teachers' achievements in solving technical problems in enterprises, developing teaching resources, optimizing teaching methods, guiding students' technological innovation, and industry influence. Establish promotion channels for characteristic positions such as "Industry Professor" and "Applied Researcher". Evaluating the effectiveness of a school's education should focus on core indicators such as the contribution of the service area's industrial development (such as technology service income, technology transformation achievements, diversified growth paths of graduates, and industrial adaptability), the depth of industry education integration, the level of characteristic professional construction, and social influence. Overall, the shift in the evaluation system is a key support for consolidating type positioning and stimulating educational vitality. Create a good ecology and establish institutional guarantees for healthy development. The healthy development of vocational undergraduate education requires systematic institutional support and a good ecosystem, and the construction of a multi-party collaborative quality assurance system. Education, human resources and social security departments should further accelerate the construction of a national qualification framework, clarify the positioning of vocational undergraduate education in the framework, achieve effective connection and equivalent mutual recognition of academic certificates, vocational skill level certificates and vocational qualifications, smooth the growth overpass of technical and skilled talents, and form a good development trend. To achieve precise allocation of policy resources, priority support will be given to vocational undergraduate colleges that adhere to their type positioning and achieve significant results in industry education integration in terms of financial investment, project approval, enrollment indicators, faculty introduction, and training base construction. Set up special guidance funds to focus on supporting the construction of characteristic professional clusters, high-level practice platforms, and the development of teaching resource systems, and strengthen the role of demonstration and guidance. We should vigorously promote the unique contribution of vocational undergraduate education in serving national strategies, supporting industrial upgrading and cultivating key forces, and enhance social recognition. We need to improve the teacher evaluation and appointment system, increase the weight of practical activities, establish incentive mechanisms, enhance social service awareness, promote the spirit of model workers, laborers, and craftsmen, and create a good atmosphere of respecting technical and skilled talents. (New Society)

Edit:Luo yu Responsible editor:Zhou shu

Source:GMW.cn

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