Evaluating the Appropriateness of China’s Undergraduate Vocational Education Curriculum System: A Four-University Case Study

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Since the National Implementation Plan for Vocational Education Reform was introduced in 2019, vocational education in China has entered a new phase. The demand for high-quality economic development has become more evident, and the need for skilled, high-level talents continues to rise. Undergraduate-level vocational education has been steadily piloted across the country as a new form of higher education and an additional tier in the vocational education system. For institutions offering undergraduate vocational programs, designing and implementing effective talent cultivation plans has become a central task. As a key guiding document, the talent training program reflects the unique educational characteristics of undergraduate-level vocational education. Its design plays a critical role in determining the quality of talent development. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate the suitability of these training programs.
This study aims to evaluate the alignment between talent training programs in China’s undergraduate-level vocational education and national policy requirements. It focuses on analyzing the programs of four local pilot institutions. The goals are to identify the core policy requirements for these programs, understand how pilot institutions implement them, highlight the gaps between policy and practice, explore the reasons behind any misalignment, and provide targeted recommendations for improvement. The study begins with a review of national policy documents, analyzing key areas like training orientation, objectives, graduation requirements, curriculum, teaching methods, and implementation support. Using a case study approach, the research then examines the talent training programs of four Ministry of Education-approved pilot institutions, assessing them across the same six dimensions. Finally, the study compares these institutions' practices with national policy expectations, analyzing where they align or fall short and identifying the causes of any discrepancies.
The findings show that current talent training programs in undergraduate-level vocational education suffer from several problems: unclear training orientation; vague and insufficiently specific training objectives and graduation requirements that do not align well with national policy requirements; a curriculum system in which modules are fragmented and weakly connected, with insufficient school–enterprise cooperation in curriculum development; an underdeveloped practical teaching system that constrains the quality of talent cultivation; and a quality assurance system that is not well designed and still deviates from policy expectations. In response, the study proposes optimization strategies for talent training programs in undergraduate-level vocational education: anchoring vocational attributes to clarify the orientation toward cultivating high-level technical and skilled talents; aligning with job requirements to reconstruct a modular curriculum system oriented toward vocational competence; deepening industry–education integration to build school–enterprise collaborative guarantee mechanisms and integrated training models; optimizing faculty structure to strengthen “dual-qualified” teaching teams that combine solid theoretical teaching with practical innovation capability; and establishing a multi-stakeholder evaluation and feedback mechanism to improve internal teaching quality monitoring systems, so that talent training programs can dynamically match the evolving needs of economic and social development.
From the perspective of “appropriateness,” this study systematically compares the degree of alignment between national policy requirements and the practices of pilot institutions, uncovers “inappropriateness” problems in such areas as training orientation, goal setting, curriculum design, faculty allocation, and quality assurance systems, and proposes optimization paths focusing on type-specific characteristics and deeper industry–education integration. The study provides empirical evidence and strategic references for both the theoretical construction and practical improvement of undergraduate-level vocational education. However, it also has several limitations. First, the sample only covers four pilot institutions and two major disciplinary clusters, which restricts the generalizability of the conclusions. Second, the research mainly relies on case studies, text analysis and comparative analysis, lacking qualitative data from interviews with key stakeholders such as students, teachers and enterprises; this limits the depth of exploration regarding the causes and real impacts of the problems. Third, some institutional documents are not publicly available, which affects the completeness and accuracy of the analysis.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• CHAPTER1. Introduction 1
• 1.1 Research Necessity and Research Purpose 1
• 1.1.1 Research Necessity 1
• 1.1.2 Research Purpose 6
• 1.2 Research Questions 6
• CHAPTER2. Theoretical Background 7
• 2.1 Definition of Concepts 7
• 2.1.1 Undergraduate Education 7
• 2.1.2 Vocational Education 7
• 2.1.3 Undergraduate-Level Vocational Education 8
• 2.1.4 Talent Cultivation Plan 9
• 2.1.5 Relevance 10
• 2.2 Literature Review 11
• 2.2.1 Research on the Talent Cultivation Objectives of Undergraduate-Level Vocational Education 11
• 2.2.2 Research on the Curriculum and Teaching of Undergraduate-Level Vocational Education 13
• 2.2.3 Research on Faculty Development for Undergraduate Vocational Education 15
• 2.2.4 Research on the Teaching Quality Assurance System of Undergraduate Vocational Education 17
• 2.2.5 Research on Talent Cultivation Programs for Undergraduate-Level Vocational Education 19
• 2.2.6 Research on talent cultivation mode of undergraduate-level vocational education 20
• 2.3 Theoretical Basis 21
• 2.1.5 Social needs theory 21
• 2.1.5 Competence-based education 24
• 2.1.5 OBE educational philosophy 28
• CHAPTER3. Research Design 32
• 3.1 Research methods 32
• 3.1.1 Case study method 32
• 3.1.2 Text analysis method 34
• 3.1.3 Comparative research method 35
• 3.2 Data collection and analysis 36
• 3.2.1 Data collection 36
• 3.2.2 Data analysis 43
• CHAPTER4. Requirements for talent cultivation programs for undergraduate-level vocational education at the national policy level 45
• 4.1 Word frequency analysis and encoding process 45
• 4.1.1 Word frequency analysis 45
• 4.1.2 Category extraction and analysis 49
• 4.2 Positioning of talent cultivation in undergraduate-level vocational education 64
• 4.2.1 Positioning of talent cultivation level: high-level technical and skilled talents 64
• 4.2.2 Positioning of Talent Cultivation Type: Professional Technical and Skilled Talents 64
• 4.2.3 Talent Cultivation Service Orientation: National Strategies, Industry Needs, and the Digital-Intelligent Transformation of Various Sectors 65
• 4.3 Basis for Formulating Talent Cultivation Programs for Undergraduate-Level Vocational Education 66
• 4.3.1 Talent Cultivation Objectives: Align with Regional Economic Development and Foster All-Round Development in Morality, Intelligence, Physique, Aesthetics, and Labor 66
• 4.3.2 Talent Cultivation Specifications: Meeting the Requirements of Knowledge, Ability, and Quality 67
• 4.3.3 Curriculum System: Emphasizing Practical Courses, Integrating Secondary, Higher, and Undergraduate Levels, and Aligning Courses with Professional Standards 71
• 4.3.4 Teaching system: focus on innovation in teaching mode, deep integration of industry and education, and collaborative education between schools and enterprises 77
• 4.3.5 Implementation Guarantee: Cultivating “Double-Qualified” Teachers, Building High-Level Training Bases, and Improving Quality Assurance Mechanisms 80
• CHAPTER5. Talent Cultivation Plans for Undergraduate-Level Vocational Education at the Institutional Level 83
• 5.1 Orientation of Talent Cultivation: High-Level Technical and Skilled Talents Serving Regional Development and Meeting Job Demands 83
• 5.2 Talent cultivation goals: Emphasizing holistic development and cultivating professionals with both moral integrity and technical competence 88
• 5.3 Talent Cultivation Specifications: Consolidating Fundamental Knowledge, Fostering Professional Practical Competence, and Enhancing Comprehensive Professional Quality 94
• 5.4 Curriculum System: Modularized Structure, Alignment with “1+X” Certificates, and Emphasis on Practical Courses 105
• 5.5 Teaching system: Promote digital teaching, integrate education and evaluation, and deepen the integration of job, course, competition, and certificate 115
• 5.6 Implementation Guarantee: “Double-Qualified” Teaching Team, On-Campus and Off-Campus Training Bases, and Feedback and Evaluation Mechanisms 129
• CHAPTER6. Comparison of Talent Cultivation Schemes for Undergraduate-Level Vocational Education. 138
• 6.1 Comparison Between the Ideal Requirements of National Policies and the Actual Situation of Pilot Institutions 138
• 6.1.1 Talent cultivation orientation: adhering to high-level technical skills, integrating secondary and higher vocational education, and differentiating from ordinary undergraduate education 154
• 6.1.2 Talent cultivation goal: Cultivating versatile technical and skilled talents 159
• viii
• 6.1.3 Talent cultivation specifications: consolidate scientific and cultural knowledge, and cultivate sustainable development ability 161
• 6.1.4 Curriculum system: Course modules are separated from each other, with low correlation, and there is a lack of courses developed through school– enterprise cooperation 164
• 6.1.5 Teaching system: insufficient digitalization of teaching, inadequate integration of ideological and political education, and value-added evaluation yet to be developed 170
• 6.1.6 Implementation guarantee: weak implementation of the dual-teacher system, insufficient skill training bases, and an imperfect quality assurance system 178
• CHAPTER7. Discussion and Conclusion 183
• 7.1 Discussion 183
• 7.1.1 Orientation dimension of school-running: Accurately defining development orientation and clarifying talent cultivation goals 183
• 7.1.2 Construction strategies, module function analysis, and curriculum system reconstruction for a career ability–oriented curriculum model 185
• 7.1.3 School–enterprise cooperation dimension: Establishing safeguard mechanisms for school–enterprise cooperation and exploring integrated school– enterprise training models 189
• 7.1.4 Faculty dimension: Optimizing faculty structure and strengthening the construction of a high-level teaching team 191
• 7.1.5 Optimize the quality assurance system and improve the management of training programs 193
• 7.2 Conclusion 195
• 7.2.1 Research significance 197
• 7.2.2 Research limitations and future prospects 197
• References 200
• Appendix1 219
• Appendix2 223