China has built the world's largest and high-quality education system, with a population of 270 million in higher education.

China News Service, Beijing, September 23 (Reporter Zeng Yue) Wang Guangyan, Spokesperson and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education of China, introduced in Beijing on the 23rd that currently, China has built the world's largest and high-quality education system, and the popularity and equity of education rank among the best in the world. The number of people with higher education in China reaches 270 million.

At a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council of China that day, Wang Guangyan said that China's higher education has effectively improved its ability to serve independent technological innovation and independent talent cultivation, and has accelerated the cultivation of a large number of top-notch innovative talents urgently needed by national strategies and industries. Among the general projects of the National Science and Technology Awards in 2025, universities took the lead in 3/4 of the awards, and vocational education provided more than 70% of new high-skilled talents for modern industries.

Chinese officials recently issued opinions on promoting the reform of colleges and universities by category and made systematic arrangements for related work. Guo Peng, director of the Development Planning Department of the Chinese Ministry of Education, pointed out that the classification is not divided into levels, but into tracks. The general direction is to guide the scientific positioning of colleges and universities based on the basic orientations of research-oriented, application-oriented, and skill-oriented, comprehensive and characteristic; improve differentiated policy support, promote the characteristic development of various types of colleges and universities such as science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, humanities and social sciences, arts and sports, and normal education, and continue to optimize the type structure and talent training structure of colleges and universities.

Guo Peng said that research-oriented universities should focus on supporting the country’s major strategic needs. The new round of "double first-class" construction will further strengthen the forward-looking layout guided by national mission and driven by strategy, guide research universities to strengthen the connection with national strategic goals and strategic tasks, condense major scientific research issues and research fields, strengthen basic frontier exploration and key technological breakthroughs, and create a supporting force to serve the country's major strategies.

He said that application-oriented universities should focus on serving the high-quality development of the region. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, support the construction of about 200 high-level application-oriented undergraduate colleges and universities and a number of high-quality specialty disciplines to create a highland for training applied basic research, technological innovation and application-oriented innovative talents, and serve the construction of regional innovation systems.

Guo Peng said that the focus of technical colleges and universities must be closely connected with the front line of production practice. The "New Double High" construction plan will continue to lead the development of skilled colleges and universities, build a strong municipal industry-education consortium and an industry-industry-education integration community, closely connect key areas of advanced manufacturing and modern service industries, promote in-depth collaboration and linkage between schools, local schools and enterprises, and deliver a large number of highly skilled talents to the front lines of industry.