China Education News

Building a Strong Education System • Education Notes

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China adopted the "CPC Central Committee's Proposal for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development," explicitly stating the need to "accelerate self-reliance and self-improvement in high-level science and technology, leading the development of new quality productive forces." It emphasized "seizing the historical opportunity of a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, coordinating the building of a strong education system, a strong country in science and technology, and a talent-rich nation, enhancing the overall efficiency of the national innovation system, comprehensively strengthening independent innovation capabilities, seizing the high ground in sci-tech development, and continuously generating new quality productive forces." It also outlined specific paths such as "strengthening original innovation and tackling key core technologies," "promoting the deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation," "advancing the integrated development of education, science and technology, and talent," and "deeply promoting the construction of Digital China." This provides the fundamental guidance for universities to plan their development over the next five years and beyond. Facing the strategic overall situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and profound changes unseen in a century, the formulation of the "15th Five-Year Plan" for universities requires a deep understanding of its inherent temporal and spatial logic and strategic positioning.

01 Grasping Temporal Logic: Building on the Present, Facing the Future, Enhancing Universities' Strategic Capabilities

The strategic planning of universities concerns fundamental decisions for their high-quality and sustainable development, providing guidance for long-term actions.

From a temporal dimension, strategic planning is future-oriented and must be based on accurate predictions of the future. However, the future is uncertain, which demands that universities possess the ability to translate strategic plans into reality—that is, university strategic capability. This is the capacity of a university to formulate strategies and integrate resources to achieve them, and it is key to coping with uncertainty. As an important form of leadership, it specifically includes environmental insight, strategic decision-making, and strategic execution capabilities.

The temporal unfolding of a university's "15th Five-Year Plan" can be simplified as "two points, one line." "Identifying two points and finding one line" is the core of planning. The first point is the starting point. Determining this point requires "knowing oneself"—understanding the university's current situation, problems, strengths, and weaknesses. This necessitates conducting in-depth baseline surveys and self-studies. The second point is the endpoint or destination. Determining this point requires understanding the organization's "mission and vision," "positioning and goals," making it necessary to conduct benchmarking studies and comparisons with peer institutions. After defining the starting and ending points, a path from the start to the destination must be found. This path consists of the strategic initiatives for university transformation, including both academic and managerial initiatives.

Over the next decade, the central task of China's higher education is clear and firm: to fully build a strong education system, providing foundational and strategic support for Chinese modernization. This is both a major responsibility of the times and a historical opportunity. The "15th Five-Year Plan" period is precisely the critical five years for deepening comprehensive education reform to achieve this grand goal. Universities must closely revolve around this central theme and integrate their own development into the national strategic landscape. To this end, it is essential to coordinate the reform of educational methods, school-running models, management systems, and support mechanisms. In terms of educational methods, the focus should shift from knowledge transmission to capacity building and character shaping, enhancing ideological and political leadership, and striving to cultivate top-notch innovative talents. In terms of school-running models, the move should be from closed operation to integrated operation, strengthening industry-education integration, science-education synergy, and domestic-international exchange. In management systems, the shift should be from power concentration to appropriate decentralization, deepening the reform of education evaluation in the new era, breaking the "Five-Only" tendencies and establishing new criteria. In support mechanisms, the transition should be from an administrative-centered model to a market-oriented model, effectively utilizing both planning and market demand as means for resource allocation, allowing the market to play an important role in resource allocation.

02 Strengthening Spatial Logic: Adapting to the Environment, Transforming the Environment, Rooting Universities in the Chinese Context

From a spatial dimension, universities are open systems deeply embedded in the external environment. As resource-dependent organizations, the starting point for university strategic planning is survival and development. The survival and high-quality development of universities are inseparable from the external environment. Therefore, universities must engage in positive interaction with the external environment, "rooting themselves in the Chinese context to run universities." "Rooting universities in the Chinese context" is the fundamental principle for developing Chinese higher education. It compares universities to trees and the Chinese context to the environment, emphasizing that only by taking root in China's fertile soil can they grow into towering trees. Indeed, throughout the history of world higher education, first-class universities have grown by serving their own countries' development.

When formulating strategic plans, it is essential to adopt an open system perspective, looking beyond education to understand education, and planning development beyond the university itself. On one hand, it is crucial to deeply understand and correctly handle the relationship between the "grand logic" of economic and social development and the "small logic" of the university's own development. The university's "small logic" must submit to and serve the "grand logic" of economic and social development. The university's "15th Five-Year Plan" should proactively align with major national strategic needs and enhance the alignment between talent cultivation and social development. On the other hand, the interaction between global higher education and Chinese higher education must be strengthened. Facing profound changes unseen in a century, Chinese higher education must not only be rooted in China but also have a global vision. The purpose of the university's "15th Five-Year Plan" should be to continuously enhance the international influence and competitiveness of Chinese higher education, making China a world academic center with significant influence.

Currently, global higher education is undergoing profound transformations, exhibiting four major trends: Firstly, the massification of higher education intertwines with demographic changes, bringing new challenges in student recruitment. Secondly, the trend of marketization in higher education coexists with government fiscal tightening, bringing new challenges in market-oriented funding allocation models. Thirdly, intensified geopolitical games and the evolution of a new type of economic globalization interact, bringing new challenges in the restructuring of the global education market. Fourthly, the wave of educational digitalization and artificial intelligence sweeps across, bringing new challenges in organizational restructuring and redistribution of interests. The university's "15th Five-Year Plan" must conduct in-depth analysis and judgment of these macro-trends and adjust its own development strategy accordingly.

03 Focusing on Core Competitiveness: Accurate Positioning, Developing Distinctive Characteristics, Shaping Comparative Advantages

The core of university strategic planning is "strategic positioning." Strategic positioning means enabling the university to have its own distinctive characteristics and form competitiveness. A clear strategic positioning can help the university concentrate efforts on key priorities under limited resources, avoid homogenization, and form comparative advantages.

The basic method for university strategic positioning is the "Three-Circle Positioning Method." A university's strategic positioning lies at the intersection of three circles. In other words, planning the strategic positioning requires considering three questions: first, "What do we want to do?" (the university's vision); second, "What should we do?" (the university's mission); and third, "What can we do?" (what the university is good at). The greater the overlap of the three circles, the more accurate the positioning; the less the overlap, the less accurate the positioning. To accurately define "what we want to do," the "benchmarking method" can be used, which colloquially means "finding the advanced, learning from the advanced, and catching up with the advanced." To accurately define "what we should do," policy research is necessary, finding resources, projects, and mission from national policies. To accurately define "what we can do," in-depth institutional research must be conducted to understand one's own strengths and weaknesses.

From an internal perspective, strategic positioning defines the university's place within the higher education system, which can be characterized by its type, level, scale, and quality. From an external perspective, strategic positioning directly points to the university's foothold and must adhere to a demand orientation. We need to consider the following questions: Whom does the university serve? What are the needs of its "customers"? How can these needs be met creatively?

The "Outline of the Plan for Building a Strong Education System (2024-2035)" explicitly calls for promoting the development of universities based on classification. This requires different types of universities to focus on different tasks, develop differentially, and each have their own focus. When formulating the "15th Five-Year Plan," universities must make strategic choices across multiple dimensions. First, clarify the basic orientation of the institution. Different types of universities—research-oriented, application-oriented, skill-oriented—all play indispensable roles in the national higher education system. The key is to find their own positioning and avoid positional drift and homogenized competition caused by the "impulse to upgrade." Second, clarify the basic direction of development. Should the university aim to be a comprehensive university pursuing "large and comprehensive" scope, or focus on a "smaller but refined" direction with distinctive characteristics? For many universities, they must dare to make trade-offs, focus on areas of strength, and strive to become "champions in specific fields." The resources of any university are limited; one must choose what not to do in order to excel in what they do. Third, define the service orientation. There must be a clear understanding of one's own strengths and weaknesses, keen insight into external opportunities and threats, and precise positioning of the service radius, building competitive advantages in practical fields such as leading nationally, serving regions, or deeply cultivating specific industries. It is important to emphasize that successful strategy lies not only in wise "choices" but also in resolute execution after the choices are made. The key initiative of the university's "15th Five-Year Plan" is comprehensive reform. Comprehensive reform is divided into three stages: initiation, implementation, and institutionalization. Only by integrating comprehensive reform into the university's bloodstream, making it part of its organizational philosophy and culture, can it truly promote university development.

Charting a Five-Year Blueprint, Strengthening a Century's Foundation.​ The "15th Five-Year Plan" period is a critical five years for China's systematic transition from a large education country to a strong education system. On this new journey, universities, as the crucial nexus of "science and technology as the primary productive force," "talent as the primary resource," and "innovation as the primary driver," bear an extraordinary mission of the times. Every university should, with a high degree of historical consciousness, profound self-analysis, and forward-looking choices, integrate resources, continue deep cultivation, and promote the formation of a new pattern of high-quality development in higher education characterized by a百花齐放 (hundred flowers blooming) and each having its own distinctive characteristics.

（作者：周光礼，系中国人民大学教育学院院长、中国教育发展战略学会高等教育专业委员会理事长）

来源：《光明日报》（2025年11月04日 15版）

作者：周光礼

网址：https://epaper.gmw.cn/gmrb/html/2025-11/04/nbs.D110000gmrb_15.htm