Following the essence and building a scientific higher education evaluation system for the future
2025-09-19
Higher education evaluation is the "baton" for carrying out comprehensive reform of higher education. Scientific evaluation of higher education must follow the basic laws of higher education, comprehensively serve the intrinsic value of the essential attributes and basic functions of higher education, serve the systematic value of higher education supporting national strategies, serve the balanced logic of the "five major relationships", respond to the complex and diverse development characteristics of higher education, classify and evaluate according to the evaluation objects, face the future, and keep pace with the times. Based on the essence of universities, serving the comprehensive development of talent cultivation is the primary function of higher education. The fundamental goal is to cultivate talents for the Party and the country, and to train socialist builders and successors with comprehensive development in morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor skills. Modern universities continue to develop and enrich their functions based on their educational attributes. In addition to basic activities such as teaching and educating students, scientific research, social services, and academic exchanges at home and abroad, promoting technological innovation, serving regional and social development, and facilitating international exchanges and cooperation have also become extremely important mission functions of modern universities. Higher education should provide strong support for building a socialist modernized country and comprehensively promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through the completion of its various functions. The scientific evaluation of higher education should first serve the basic attributes and functions of universities comprehensively. In terms of talent cultivation, we attach great importance to the comprehensive and personalized development of morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor skills; In scientific research, emphasis is placed on originality and influence; In terms of social services, emphasis is placed on examining actual contributions; In terms of international communication, focus on the depth and effectiveness of cooperation. Comprehensive service emphasizes overall planning and consideration, and evaluation should not be one-sided or neglected. It should be conducive to promoting the coordinated development of various functions of universities, thereby comprehensively enhancing the ideological and political leadership, talent competitiveness, technological support, livelihood security, social synergy, and international influence of higher education. Rooted in the land of China and serving the national strategy, higher education has distinct strategic attributes in the education system. It is not only a cradle for cultivating talents, but also an important engine for national scientific and technological innovation and economic and social development. Higher education must organically combine functions such as talent cultivation, technological innovation, and social services to conduct a comprehensive strategic evaluation of the integration of education, technology, and talent. In terms of evaluating technological innovation, a "full chain" evaluation system should be established. Basic research focuses on originality, applied research focuses on conversion rate, and technological development focuses on practicality. The focus is on whether the development problems of "neck blockage", "brain blockage", and "throat blockage" have been solved, whether they have served the major needs of the country, and whether they have promoted industrial transformation and upgrading. In terms of talent cultivation evaluation, a "full cycle" tracking mechanism should be established. It depends not only on academic performance, but also on the development achievements in 5-10 years or even throughout one's life after graduation; It is necessary to assess both professional competence and core competencies; We should not only focus on employment rate, but also on contribution. Special attention should be paid to cultivating top-notch innovative talents with international competitiveness in key fields. In terms of social service evaluation, a "full coverage" service function should be implemented. Research universities focus on the responsiveness to major national demands, applied universities focus on the contribution to regional economic development, and vocational colleges focus on the accuracy of service industry enterprise skills. We need to establish an evaluation orientation that deeply integrates government, industry, academia, research, and application. To properly handle the evaluation system of the five pairs of relationship science, it is necessary to coordinate the relationship between supporting national strategies and meeting people's livelihood needs, serving major needs while also paying attention to the expectations of the people. In terms of evaluation orientation, it is necessary to examine the ability of universities to serve major national strategies, such as participating in major national science and technology projects and serving regional coordinated development strategies; We also need to pay attention to the effectiveness of universities in improving people's livelihoods, such as the quality of employment for graduates and continuing education services. We need to establish a "towering" evaluation system to promote universities to provide support for major national strategies and serve regional economic and social development. We need to balance the relationship between knowledge learning and comprehensive development, emphasizing both professional training and quality education. In terms of evaluation content, professional competence indicators such as mastery of professional knowledge and research and innovation ability should be set up; It also needs to include comprehensive quality indicators such as ideological and moral education, physical and mental health, aesthetic literacy, and labor practice. Special attention should be paid to establishing an evaluation system that combines the "five educations", setting specific indicators such as moral education effectiveness, sports achievement rate, participation in aesthetic education practice activities, and labor education effectiveness. We need to coordinate the relationship between cultivating talents and meeting social needs, both following educational laws and aligning with social demands. In terms of evaluation mechanism, on the one hand, we should respect the cyclical pattern of talent cultivation and avoid the evaluation orientation of seeking quick success and instant benefits; On the other hand, it is necessary to establish a social demand feedback mechanism, incorporating evaluations from employers and tracking surveys of graduate development into the evaluation system, to promote a dynamic balance between talent cultivation and social demand. We should grasp the relationship between standardization, orderliness, and vitality, strengthen the construction of normative systems, and encourage innovative explorations that break conventions. In terms of evaluation methods, there should be a standardized and unified evaluation standard framework to ensure the scientific and fair nature of the evaluation work; We also need to leave room for distinctive development of different types and levels of universities, and recognize the distinctive education, reform and innovation of universities by establishing an evaluation dimension of "distinctive development". We need to handle the relationship between rooting in the land of China and drawing on international experience, while adhering to Chinese characteristics and absorbing world experience. In terms of evaluation criteria, on the one hand, we should base ourselves on China's national conditions and build an evaluation system with Chinese characteristics, such as strengthening the evaluation of the effectiveness of ideological and political education; On the other hand, we need to draw on international advanced experience and align with international standards in scientific research evaluation, talent cultivation, and other aspects. It is possible to establish internationally comparable indicators, such as research evaluation standards, international student scale, etc., while maintaining Chinese characteristic indicators, such as service to national strategic contributions, to form an evaluation system that combines international perspectives and Chinese characteristics. According to the classification of evaluation objects, promoting scientific higher education evaluation should avoid a one size fits all approach, respect the diversity of higher education, and encourage universities to take the path of characteristic and innovative development. A scientific evaluation system should be conducive to optimizing the layout of higher education, establishing a classified development system of universities that matches the needs of regional economic and social development, and promoting the formation of a new pattern of coordinated development of research-oriented, application-oriented, and vocational skills oriented universities. By using differentiated evaluation criteria, different types of universities are guided to find their positioning and highlight their characteristics, avoiding homogeneous competition and resource mismatch. To accelerate the construction of universities with Chinese characteristics and world-class disciplines, focus on major national strategic needs, and establish an evaluation system guided by innovation quality and practical contributions. For the construction of "Double First Class" universities, the focus is on evaluating their breakthrough achievements in basic cutting-edge research, key core technology breakthroughs, philosophy and social science innovation, as well as their ability to cultivate top-notch innovative talents. To facilitate the improvement of the mechanism for discovering and cultivating top-notch innovative talents, and to establish a diversified and personalized evaluation system. We need to establish and improve channels for selecting special talents, deepen flexible education systems, and implement personalized mentorship programs to provide growth opportunities for students with special talents. At the same time, establish evaluation indicators with innovation capability and development potential as the core, and break the evaluation tendency of only scores and papers. To facilitate the construction of an independent knowledge system for Chinese philosophy and social sciences, and establish evaluation criteria that conform to the development laws of philosophy and social sciences. Clarify the ideological and local attributes that distinguish philosophy and social sciences from natural sciences, encourage scholars to have a conscious awareness based on China's reality, and propose theoretical viewpoints with subjectivity and originality. Highlight the interpretation and innovation of China's national conditions, problems, practices, theories, paths, and systems in the evaluation, and promote the formation of a discipline system, academic system, and discourse system with Chinese characteristics. It should be conducive to cultivating and strengthening the national strategic scientific and technological strength, and provide strong support for high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement. For strategic scientific and technological forces such as national laboratories and State Key Laboratory, establish an evaluation system oriented to solving major national needs, and focus on evaluating their actual contributions to breaking through scientific and technological problems and developing major equipment. For the field of basic research, a longer evaluation period should be given, appropriate fault tolerance mechanisms should be established, and researchers should be encouraged to face difficulties, devote themselves to research, and climb new heights. Facing the future and keeping pace with the times, higher education evaluation must keep up with technological progress and the development of the times, actively adapt to the new challenges and opportunities brought by the unprecedented changes, and actively integrate into the process of digital and intelligent development. To establish a dynamically adjusted evaluation mechanism. The evaluation criteria should be revised regularly to reflect the development needs of new technologies, industries, and formats in a timely manner. Especially in cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum technology, and biotechnology, it is necessary to take the lead in establishing adaptive evaluation indicators to guide universities to grasp the new trends of technological revolution and industrial transformation. We need to strengthen the evaluation dimension of future orientation. In terms of talent cultivation, emphasis should be placed on evaluating students' future oriented core competencies such as digital literacy, innovative thinking, interdisciplinary abilities, and global competence; In scientific research, attention should be paid to cultivating originality and disruptive innovation; In terms of social services, it is necessary to examine the contribution of universities in addressing global challenges such as climate change and population aging. We need to innovate evaluation methods and approaches. Fully utilize new technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence to build an intelligent evaluation platform, achieve real-time collection, dynamic analysis, and accurate feedback of evaluation data, promote the formation of a new scientific evaluation model supported by data and based on evidence, and improve the objectivity, accuracy, and added value of evaluation. To enhance the international adaptability of evaluation. While maintaining Chinese characteristics, the evaluation criteria should have strong international comparability. They should be able to discover and cultivate innovative talents with global competitiveness, as well as produce original results with international influence. (Authors: Qin Huimin and Li Qingfeng, respectively Senior Professor of Humanities and Honorary Dean of the School of Education at Beijing Foreign Studies University, and Professor of the School of Education at Beijing Foreign Studies University)
Edit:He Chuanning Responsible editor:Su Suiyue
Source:Guang Ming Daily
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