Throughout the vast expanse of human history, education has always been the cornerstone of national rejuvenation and social progress. Since the 15th century, countries such as Britain, France, Germany, and the United States have successively risen to become global powers, and a key reason for this rise lies in their strong and leading-edge education systems. To build a powerful nation through education, we must fully leverage the leading role of higher education, deeply recognizing that this leading role implies not only guidance and impetus but also a pioneering function in the grand cause of building a strong nation and achieving national rejuvenation. Looking around the world, every country regards running universities well and cultivating talented individuals as strategic measures for driving national development and enhancing overall national strength. All countries attach great importance to harnessing the guiding and driving role of higher education in forging comparative advantages in scientific and technological innovation and human resources, thereby securing a competitive edge in the international arena. Looking ahead, China’s higher education must focus on building a powerful nation through education, fully playing its leading role in implementing the fundamental task of fostering virtue and cultivating talent, further deepening comprehensive reform, and promoting high-level opening-up. We must strive to create a new landscape of high-quality development and continuously demonstrate new responsibilities and achievements in higher education.

Focusing on fostering moral integrity and cultivating well-rounded individuals, we must expand the framework for building “grand ideological and political courses,” nurturing outstanding talents who are capable of shouldering the great mission of strengthening our country and rejuvenating the Chinese nation. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Identifying what kind of people to cultivate, how to cultivate them, and for whom to cultivate them—these are the fundamental questions of education and also the core issues in building a strong educational nation.” Fostering moral integrity and cultivating well-rounded individuals is vital to ensuring the Party’s cause has successors and to determining the future and destiny of our country; it is the fundamental task of higher education institutions. Ideological and political courses are the key courses for implementing the fundamental task of fostering moral integrity and cultivating well-rounded individuals. The role of these courses is irreplaceable, and the teaching staff responsible for them bears a tremendous responsibility. Therefore, ideological and political courses at universities must be taught exceptionally well. Since the advent of the new era, General Secretary Xi Jinping has delivered important speeches and given crucial instructions on the development of ideological and political courses in schools on numerous occasions, charting a clear course for continuously enhancing the ideological depth, theoretical rigor, appeal, and relevance of these courses. On the new journey ahead, as we deepen comprehensive educational reform around the implementation of the fundamental task of fostering moral integrity and cultivating well-rounded individuals, we must refine the mechanisms for this endeavor, focus on ideological and political courses as the key component, accelerate the establishment of a curriculum and textbook system centered on Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and continually improve the relevance and appeal of these courses. We must persistently use Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to forge souls and educate people, vigorously strengthen education in socialist core values, guide students to establish firm ideals and convictions, always heed the Party’s call and follow its lead, and remain committed to dedicating themselves wholeheartedly to the country and the people. We must thoroughly implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on the development of ideological and political courses in schools, continuously advance reform and innovation in these courses, strengthen the construction of the teaching staff, establish an independent evaluation system for ideological and political course teachers, and motivate and guide teachers to become exemplary instructors who deliver these courses superbly. We must adhere to the “three-in-one” educational philosophy of value formation, capability development, and knowledge transmission, and build a comprehensive guidance and ideological-political education system. We must innovate in conducting online ideological and political education, strengthen the development of online platforms for education, leverage new media and technologies to enhance theoretical learning, and create more high-quality online cultural products that are created by young people, loved by young people, and beneficial to young people. We must uphold the principle of promoting “five forms of education” in parallel and advancing “all-round education,” striving to nurture socialist builders and successors who develop comprehensively in morality, intelligence, physical health, aesthetics, and labor.

Firmly grasp the priorities and accelerate the development of world-class universities with Chinese characteristics and leading-edge disciplines. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “We must unswervingly regard high-quality development as the lifeline of education at all levels and of all types,” and “we must prioritize accelerating the development of world-class universities with Chinese characteristics and leading-edge disciplines.” Today, the world is undergoing a major shift unseen in a century, and the growing instability and uncertainty pose new challenges to the form and development model of higher education. At the same time, the new strategic opportunities, new strategic tasks, new strategic stages, new strategic requirements, and new strategic environment on the new journey all place new demands on China’s higher education to achieve high-quality development. On this new journey, we must deepen comprehensive educational reforms centered on serving national strategies and socio-economic development, continue to strengthen higher education as the driving force, and accelerate the development of world-class universities with Chinese characteristics and leading-edge disciplines. We must uphold the Party’s overall leadership over education, fully implement the Party’s educational guidelines, and fully leverage the institutional advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics, transforming our confidence in our path, our theory, our system, and our culture into confidence in education and in cultivating talent. We must remain committed to fostering people for the Party and nurturing talents for the country, taking improving the quality of talent cultivation as the starting point and ultimate goal of all our work, and consciously converting the school’s long-accumulated strengths into ever-increasing effectiveness in talent cultivation. We must persist in better serving the nation’s major strategic needs, continuously producing scientific, technological, and intellectual-cultural innovations that can lead the world and drive high-quality economic and social development. We must unswervingly promote substantive development, placing greater emphasis on internal quality and potential exploration, striking a proper balance between scale and quality, and doing things that are truly valuable and have long-term significance, constantly enhancing the school’s academic standing and educational standards. We must take innovation as our guiding principle, boldly pioneering ahead of others in innovating educational philosophies, practices, and institutions, fully unleashing the vitality of various innovative elements such as knowledge, talent, and technology, and forging an even stronger synergy for innovation. We must rely on reform to stimulate internal development momentum, paying even more attention to enhancing the systematic, holistic, and coordinated nature of reform efforts, using reform to resolve deep-seated contradictions, and comprehensively elevating the level of school governance.

Actively serving high-quality development and continuously enhancing our capacity and contribution to advancing the Chinese-style modernization drive—General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “We must regard serving high-quality development as a crucial task in building a strong education nation.” Building a strong education nation, a strong science and technology nation, and a strong talent nation is inherently consistent and mutually supportive. By organically integrating these three components and promoting them in a coordinated manner, we can generate a multiplier effect that drives high-quality development. Universities serve as the nexus where the first productive force of science and technology, the primary resource for talent cultivation, and the foremost engine of innovation converge; they are the mainstay of basic research and the birthplace of major scientific and technological breakthroughs. Looking globally, higher education in every country has grown and flourished by serving its own national development. We must bear in mind the “big picture of the nation,” anticipate what the nation needs, address its urgent concerns, and respond promptly to its demands. We should strive to provide excellent answers to the critical question of “What role should education play in building a strong nation?” and better serve high-quality development. We must vigorously strengthen the development of fundamental disciplines, emerging disciplines, and interdisciplinary fields, and refine our university innovation system—one that is underpinned by a healthy academic ecosystem, safeguarded by effective academic governance, and aimed at producing world-class scholarly achievements and cultivating top-notch talent. With a sense of responsibility that proactively steps forward and the fearless spirit of “taking on the toughest challenges,” we must uphold the fighting spirit of “the more difficult the path, the more resolutely we advance,” continually pushing ahead with scientific and technological innovation and overcoming key core technologies that have long been bottlenecks. We must focus on enhancing our capacity for independently cultivating outstanding innovative talent, explore and promote undergraduate training models that integrate humanities and sciences and blend general and specialized studies, deeply implement the “Strong Foundation Plan,” and encourage talented students to devote themselves to research in fundamental disciplines. We should advance differentiated graduate education that makes academic pursuits truly academic and professional fields truly professional, and improve the evaluation system for graduate students’ innovative achievements when applying for degrees. We must innovate mechanisms for integrating science and education and fostering industry-academia collaboration, leveraging large-scale research platforms and major research projects to nurture innovative talent, and encourage comprehensive participation and collaborative education involving industry and enterprises. We must establish and improve collaborative innovation mechanisms for major scientific and technological innovation bases, deepen the integration of industry, academia, and research, facilitate the high-level commercialization of scientific and technological achievements, and continuously produce research and innovation outcomes that meet the needs of national development, thereby achieving new heights for first-class universities in the process of serving national development.

We must strive to enhance our international influence and accelerate the building of a globally significant education hub with strong global impact. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “We need to refine our strategies for opening up education to the world in response to evolving international circumstances, and coordinate efforts on both ‘attracting in’ and ‘going out.’ We should make effective use of world-class educational resources and innovative elements, so that China can become a globally important education hub with substantial influence.” Universities are the inheritors of human civilization and play a vital role in promoting academic exchange, the convergence of ideas, and the blending of cultures. The breadth of vision held by universities determines the scope of the talents they nurture. Only by remaining open-minded and drawing upon the outstanding achievements of human civilization as well as the beneficial experiences of higher education worldwide can universities truly achieve high-quality development. At present, the international influence of China’s higher education does not yet fully match our country’s overall national strength and international standing. Therefore, we must put equal emphasis on both “attracting in” and “going out,” and deliver concrete results in each area. To do well in “attracting in,” we must regard strengthening our talent pool as the core strategy for university development. By adopting more proactive, more open, and more effective talent policies, we should intensify efforts to attract high-level talent, bringing together a group of world-class experts and leading scholars. We should also cultivate a cadre of renowned teachers dedicated to nurturing students and a new generation of young talents brimming with innovation and vitality, thus making university campuses places that aspiring global talent yearn for and feel at home in. We must focus on improving both the quality of international student recruitment and the quality of their education, building universities that are more open, more inclusive, and more resilient, and continuously enhancing the appeal of Chinese universities to outstanding young people from around the globe. To excel in “going out,” we must actively participate in global education governance, forge high-quality global partnerships, strengthen strategic cooperation with top-tier universities, international organizations, and enterprises that wield global influence, proactively initiate and establish various global university alliances, deepen high-level cooperation and exchanges with key countries and regions, countries along the Belt and Road Initiative, and neighboring nations, and reinforce the development of overseas educational bases. We must speed up the construction of an independent Chinese knowledge system, tell China’s stories well, disseminate China’s experiences, and amplify China’s voice, thereby enhancing the international influence and discourse power of China’s education. We must fully leverage the unique role of universities in fostering cultural exchanges and building mutual understanding among peoples, and make greater contributions to advancing the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

As the ancients said, “Respect for teaching and encouragement of learning are the cornerstone of national development; fostering talented individuals and nurturing capable people are the top priorities in governance.” In this new era and on this new journey, we must fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. We should leverage the thriving development of world-class universities with Chinese characteristics to drive forward the vigorous advancement of building a strong educational nation. By harnessing the power of education, we will firmly establish the foundation for people’s happiness and strengthen the bedrock of national prosperity, thereby providing robust support for comprehensively advancing the cause of building a strong country and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.