How Does Graduate Training Promote Sustainable Development of Higher Education: Evidence from China’s “Double First-Class” Universities’ Programs

Abstract

Higher education is crucial to sustainable development. The construction of a “double first-class” university (the 42 top universities in China) is an important initiative to improve the quality of higher education and promote its sustainable development. The aim of the study discussed here was to explore how graduate training promotes the sustainable development of higher education and the main characteristics of graduate training in China’s “double first-class” universities. The research in this paper involved 42 “double first-class” universities’ graduate training programs (including training objectives, training process, and training methods) for which coding analysis using NVivo12 plus was carried out. It was found that the main characteristics of China’s “double first-class” university graduate training are as follows: (1) clear decomposition of quality and ability structure; (2) taking quality as the core of the connotative development of higher education; and (3) innovation in talent training methods. This study focused on talent training itself, which is of significant importance in the competition for talent around the world. China’s double first-class universities can not only provide experience for the graduate education of domestic universities, but also for those in other countries.