Exploring the Deep Integration of Party Construction Leadership and Intelligent Education Systems in Higher Education Institutions ()
1. Introduction
Within the grand architecture of the educational system, ideological and political education has always occupied a pivotal core position, serving as a crucial cornerstone in shaping students’ correct worldview, outlook on life, and values. As time progresses, the field of education continuously explores innovative models of nurturing talent. The integration of Party construction leadership and intelligent education systems has emerged as a new trend in the current process of educational reform and development.
Party construction leadership imparts a steadfast political direction and powerful ideological guidance, ensuring that the work of nurturing talent consistently revolves around the fundamental goals of educating individuals for the Party and the nation. The intelligent education system, leveraging cutting-edge information technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence, transcends the temporal and spatial constraints of traditional education, offering students personalized and precise learning experiences, thereby significantly enhancing the efficiency and quality of education. The deep integration of these two not only incorporates the Party’s advanced theories and red culture into the ideological shaping of students during the talent cultivation process, fostering high-quality talents with both a sense of national responsibility and social consciousness, but also drives innovative transformations in educational models, promotes the balanced allocation of educational resources, and injects new vitality into the high-quality development of education.
2. Current Development Status of Party Building and Talent Cultivation in Chinese Universities
Party Building and Talent Cultivation refers to an educational philosophy and practical model where the Party organization’s core leadership integrates the Party’s advanced theories, ideological concepts, and value systems comprehensively into the entire process of teaching and talent development. This approach aims to cultivate a new generation of individuals with firm political beliefs, noble moral qualities, a strong sense of social responsibility, and innovative practical abilities.
2.1. Policy Support for Party Building and Talent Cultivation in Chinese Universities
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) attaches great importance to the Party building in colleges and universities, and a series of important discourses by General Secretary Xi Jinping provide the fundamental guidance for this endeavor. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Central Committee has successively issued a series of intra-Party regulations and systems, including The Implementing Opinions on Adhering to and Improving the System of President Responsibility under the Leadership of the Party Committee in Regular Higher Education Institutions, The Opinions on Strengthening and Improving the Ideological and Political Work in Colleges and Universities under the New Situation, The Opinions on Strengthening the Party Building Work in Private Schools (for Trial Implementation) and Regulations of the Communist Party of China on the Work of Grassroots Organizations in Regular Higher Education Institutions. In 2023, the Project of Cultivating Newcomers of the Times was launched. In 2024, the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council jointly issued The Master Plan on Building China into a Leading Country in Education (2024-2035).
2.2. The Practical Status Quo of Party Building and Education in Chinese Universities
1) Positive Achievements. The Party’s overall leadership over universities has been continuously strengthened. The project of shaping the souls of new generations for the new era has been deeply implemented. The number of full-time teachers for ideological and political courses and counselors has increased significantly. The political and organizational functions of grassroots Party organizations in universities have been continuously enhanced.
2) Innovative Forms. Universities are actively innovating the forms of Party-building work. For instance, they utilize new media platforms to conduct immersive and interactive propaganda and organize training courses for the “Young Marxist Project”. Take, for example, the second student Party branch of the general Party branch of a certain university, which has developed a new three-dimensional mode of organizational education named “Micro Party-building”. Online, it has opened a special column called “Theory Learning Face-to-Face” to create “Micro Party Lessons”. It also conducts “Micro Activities”, forming a multi-dimensional education matrix with “Party-building for education” as the guiding principle. (Yan, 2015)
3) Achievements among Students. Since a certain university implemented the red-culture education matrix, the participation rate in Party-building activities has increased significantly. For immersive activities such as the “Walking Ideological and Political Course”, over 90% of students are willing to participate. Through activities like the “Youth Study Session” and “Micro-League Lessons on Studying the 20th National Congress of the CPC”, students have a deeper understanding of the Party’s policies and red culture. A survey shows that nearly 85% of students say these activities have enhanced their knowledge of the Party’s history and national spirit.
From the perspective of the practice of Party-building work among college students, the process of strengthening the ideological construction of Party-building work in colleges and universities is a process of deepening the education of college students’ ideals and beliefs. In the Party-building work, before joining the Party, basic knowledge of the Party and Marxist theory are popularized to help young people initially form political beliefs and correct their motivation for joining the Party. When joining the Party, through organizational procedures, education on enhancing ideals and beliefs is carried out for Party-entry activists and development targets, promoting the sublimation of their thoughts and gradually establishing a correct outlook on the world, life, and values. After joining the Party, continuous education is provided to make college student Party members’ thoughts more mature and their political beliefs firmer, enabling them to become qualified builders and reliable successors.
2.3. Development Dilemmas
The development dilemmas of Party building and education in Chinese universities are mainly reflected in three aspects:
1) Conceptual Cognition. Some universities insufficiently recognize the importance and urgency of Party-building for education, and fail to place it at the core of the school’s development strategy. Some university administrators still hold the traditional concept of emphasizing academics over Party-building, believing that Party-building work is merely a formality and has a limited impact on students’ growth and the school’s development. If party-building education is perceived as merely a formality, it lacks substantive content and meaningful activities. This deficiency hampers the development of students’ ideological and political awareness, affecting their overall worldview, values, and sense of social responsibility.
2) Educational Approaches. The methods of Party-building for education are relatively traditional and lack innovation. In the educational process, it primarily relies on theoretical indoctrination, with a single form that is difficult to stimulate students’ interest. This monotonous approach diminishes students’ interest and motivation to learn about political ideologies, resulting in superficial understanding and retention of knowledge. In terms of activity implementation, theme Party-day activities, social practices, etc., lack appeal, and new media and new technologies are not fully utilized, resulting in poor effectiveness of Party-building for education.
3) The Working Team. The overall quality of the team engaged in Party-building and education work in universities needs to be improved. On the one hand, the number of full-time Party workers is insufficient, and some of them lack systematic Party-building knowledge and practical experience, making it difficult to meet the increasingly complex requirements of Party-building and education work. On the other hand, although some teacher Party members possess professional knowledge, they lack the ability to integrate Party-building with teaching, resulting in the ineffective implementation of Party-building for education in classroom teaching. (Wang, 2025) This disconnect means that students do not benefit from a holistic education that combines academic knowledge with political and ideological insights, ultimately affecting their overall intellectual and moral development.
3. The Smart Education Practice System Leads the New Development of Party-Building Work
The smart education practice system spearheads the innovation of Party-building work through technological integration. By leveraging cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence to construct a smart teaching platform, it becomes feasible to efficiently upload Party-building materials, conduct live-stream teaching, and achieve personalized teaching based on student data. Intelligent learning terminals enable students to study Party-building knowledge anytime and anywhere. Their intelligent reminder and communication functions facilitate learning and ideological exchanges. Virtual practice environments created by VR and AR allow students to immerse themselves in red culture, deepening their understanding of Party-building. The data analysis system delves into learning data to help optimize Party-building courses. The teacher training system enhances teachers’ information technology application capabilities, comprehensively ensuring the implementation of Party-building work.
3.1. Innovating the Teaching Model to Enhance the Effectiveness of Party-Building Education
Network informatization has brought rich educational content to the student work in universities, transcended the time-and-space limitations of traditional Party-building education, and enhanced the appeal of intra-Party educational activities. Under the smart education practice system, the teaching model has transformed from traditional to modern. With the aid of big-data analysis, it is possible to accurately grasp students’ learning characteristics and needs. For example, based on past learning data, Party-building courses that match students’ knowledge mastery levels can be recommended to them, ranging from basic theories to in-depth topics, so as to teach students in accordance with their aptitudes. The intelligent teaching platform driven by artificial intelligence provides real-time interactive teaching. Students can ask questions at any time, and intelligent teaching assistants can answer them promptly, breaking the time-and-space limitations of teaching and making Party-building learning unrestricted by time and place, thus greatly improving learning efficiency. Research articles in educational technology journals often provide empirical data on the effectiveness of AI-driven teaching platforms. These studies typically include metrics such as learning gains, student satisfaction, and engagement levels. Additionally, the integration of Party-building work into the network provides a space for self-education for college student Party members and enhances the educational effect. Self-education primarily refers to the education of students by themselves and among students. The network is not only an information source for education but also a communication tool and means. To some extent, online education constitutes a novel approach to “self-education” and has become a fresh avenue for ideological education.
3.2. Innovating the Learning Experience to Stimulate Students’ Learning Enthusiasm
The virtual Party-building learning scenarios constructed relying on VR and AR technologies provide students with immersive learning experiences. Once student Party members put on the devices, they can “be present” in revolutionary holy places. For example, they can visit the site of the Zunyi Conference to experience the momentous historical events of critical times. This makes the abstract historical knowledge of Party-building concrete and enhances the fun of learning. The popularization of intelligent learning terminals integrates Party-building learning into daily life. Students can utilize fragmented time to receive Party-building information and participate in online discussions through mobile apps, absorbing Party-building knowledge anytime and anywhere, thereby stimulating their learning enthusiasm. (Liao, Wu, & Chen, 2024)
The widespread application of intelligent learning terminals ingeniously integrates Party-building learning into daily life. In today’s fast-paced social environment, students’ time is becoming increasingly fragmented. Intelligent learning terminals such as mobile apps precisely match this characteristic. Students only need to open the mobile Party-building learning app in their spare time to instantly obtain the latest Party-building information. Whether it is the spirit of important Party meetings or in -depth interpretations of current political hot topics, they can all be grasped promptly.
Concurrently, the online discussion community built into the app has become a key and pivotal platform for students to exchange ideas. Here, students express their opinions on various Party-building topics and actively share their learning experiences. Different viewpoints collide and blend with each other, igniting the flames of wisdom. This learning and communication mode that transcends time-and-space limitations frees the learning of Party-building knowledge from the traditional classroom and truly integrates it into students’ lives, making it an indispensable part. It provides a continuous source of motivation for continuously stimulating students’ learning enthusiasm.
3.3. Optimizing Decision-Making and Management to Promote the Upgrading of Party-Building Work
The data analysis system in the smart education practice system provides data support for decision-making in Party-building work. By analyzing data such as students’ learning behaviors and course feedback, we can understand strengths and weaknesses in Party-building teaching, and then subsequently optimize the curriculum settings and adjust the teaching focuses. In terms of Party member management, information technology is utilized to achieve digital management of Party member information. From the transfer of organizational relationships, learning and training records to the tracking of daily performance, all can be efficiently recorded and queried, which enhances the management level of Party-building work and promotes the development of Party-building work in a scientific and efficient direction.
In the smart education practice system, the data analysis system is like the central nerve, providing robust data support for decision-making in Party-building work. Through multi-dimensional data collection, covering students’ behavior trajectories during the learning of Party-building courses, such as learning duration, course click frequency, and the activity of participating in interactions, as well as students’ feedback on course content, including the completion of after-class assignments, questionnaire survey results, and online message evaluations, the system can comprehensively and deeply analyze the overall situation of Party-building teaching. Based on these massive and detailed data, we can clearly identify the strengths and weaknesses in Party-building teaching. According to the analysis results, we can precisely optimize the curriculum settings and scientifically adjust the teaching focuses to ensure that the content of Party-building teaching always meets the needs of students and enhances the teaching effect.
The previous cumbersome file-flipping and manual statistics work has been supplanted by efficient digital operations, which not only reduces human errors but also standardizes and orderlies the management of Party members. Through the in-depth application of the data analysis system in Party-building teaching and Party member management, Party-building work has made great strides in the direction of being scientific and efficient, and better adapting to the development needs of the new era. (Li, 2013)
4. Application Exploration of Smart Education in the Party-Building Work among College Students
In the current era of rapid information technology development, the Party-building work among college students confronts new opportunities and challenges. As an innovative model integrating advanced technologies and educational concepts, smart education injects new vitality into the Party-building work among college students. It aids in enhancing the quality and efficiency of Party-building work and cultivate college students in the new era with firm ideals and beliefs.
4.1. Innovating Educational Concepts and Cultivating Professional Party-Building Teams
The traditional concept of Party-building education emphasizes theoretical indoctrination and urgently needs transformation in the context of smart education. In the new intelligent educational environment, party-building workers need to possess specific qualities and skills, which can be cultivated through targeted training and development. Universities should establish a student-centered educational concept that integrates information technology, and fully recognizes the importance of smart education in stimulating students’ learning initiative and enhancing the effectiveness of Party-building education. (Du, 2024)
The construction of the Party-building work team is crucial. It is imperative to cultivate a Party-building team that combines Party-building theory with network technology and understands the characteristics of network culture. This team not only needs to possess practical experience in university Party-building but also be proficient in network technology. On the one hand, universities need to regularly organize Party workers and teachers to participate in informatization training, covering contents such as big-data analysis, new media application, and the operation of intelligent teaching tools, so as to improve their ability to carry out Party-building work using information technology. For example, conduct “Practical Operation Training of the Smart Party-building Platform” to enable teachers to proficiently master the platform functions proficiently and carry out online teaching and management efficiently (Du, 2024). On the other hand, encourage Party-building workers to learn advanced educational concepts and innovative teaching methods. For instance, adopt project-based learning, case-based teaching, and other methods, combined with smart teaching tools, to guide students to think deeply and contemplate Party-building theories and elevate the educational and teaching level of the team. Universities can strengthen collaboration and exchange with other institutions to learn and adopt advanced party-building experiences and practices. By inviting experts in party-building and educational technology to provide guidance and lectures, universities can enhance the theoretical knowledge and practical capabilities of party-building workers. This approach not only fosters the sharing of innovative ideas and methodologies but also ensures that party-building efforts are aligned with the latest developments in both educational technology and political theory. Through such collaborative efforts, universities can build a more competent and dynamic party-building workforce, ultimately improving the effectiveness and impact of their educational initiatives.
4.2. Building a Public Communication Platform to Enhance the
Effectiveness of Party-Building Work
Build a comprehensive public communication platform integrating information release, interactive communication, and business handling to facilitate the efficient development of Party-building work. In the information-release section, update Party-building policies, activity arrangements of Party organizations, learning materials, and other content in a timely manner to ensure that students can obtain the latest Party-building information. The interactive communication area is equipped with functions such as forums and online Q&A. Students can freely express their doubts in Party-building learning, suggestions for Party-organization activities, etc., and Party workers and teachers can reply in real-time to achieve two-way communication.
The platform can also optimize the business-handling process. For example, Party-entry applications, transfer organizational relationships, etc. can all be processed online, and the system automatically records the handling progress, which is convenient for students to query. With the aid of the platform’s data-analysis function, we can understand the hot topics of students’ concern and their participation degree, and adjust work strategies accordingly, making the Party-building work more aligned with students’ needs and enhancing the effectiveness of the work.
4.3. Relying on the Diversity of Internet Culture to Cultivate
Students’ Innovative Thinking
The rich and diverse Internet culture provides fertile ground for cultivating the innovative thinking of college student Party members. Universities should make full use of various online resources, such as red-themed films and TV works, documentary films on the history of the Communist Party of China, and cutting-edge research achievements in Party-building, to organize students to carry out activities such as themed seminars and creative planning. For example, using popular red-themed movies as materials, students are required to analyze the characters and events in the films from the perspective of Party-building theory. They are encouraged to express unique opinions to stimulate the vitality of thinking.
Guide students to participate in the creation of online Party-building works, such as making short videos on the history of the Communist Party of China and designing H5 pages with Party-building themes, so as to exercise their innovative abilities in practice. Hold online Party-building creativity competitions with different themes. Students can freely form teams to participate. After submitting their works, online voting and expert reviews are conducted. Excellent works are displayed and rewarded to create an innovative atmosphere and cultivate students’ ability to combine Party-building knowledge with innovative thinking.
4.4. Guided by Advanced Culture, Consolidating the Online
Party-Building Positions
In the online environment, advanced culture serves as the banner of Party-building work. Universities should vigorously promote the core socialist values on the online Party-building platforms, and disseminate red culture, revolutionary culture, and outstanding traditional Chinese culture. By setting up cultural columns to tell the stories of revolutionary predecessors and interpret classic cultural works, students can be subtly influenced by advanced culture. (Sun & Lu, 2014)
Utilize new media platforms to produce and disseminate positive-energy short videos, comics, articles, etc., presenting the connotations of advanced culture in vivid forms. For instance, produce a series of short videos titled “Moments in a Century of the Party’s History”, which review important historical moments of the Party with concise and incisive content. These videos are released on platforms like TikTok and BiliBili to attract students’ attention, guide them to establish correct worldviews and outlooks on life and values, enhance their sense of identity and belonging to the Party, and consolidate the ideological positions of online Party-building.
4.5. Strengthening Platform Construction and Institutional
Guarantees to Escort the Development of Online
Party-Building
New media, characterized by interactivity, real-time nature, and anonymity, has brought new opportunities and vitality to the Party-building work in universities. Through diverse platforms such as forum exchanges, text message interactions, and WeChat links, students have been provided with a broad space to freely express their opinions. On these platforms, students can express their views without hesitation, and universities can also grasp students’ ideological trends in real-time and accurately, and deeply understand their ideals and beliefs, providing a strong basis for Party-building education. (Liu, Mi, & Bei, 2007)
In addition, a sound and perfect system and strict and standardized management are important cornerstones for the steady progress of online Party-building work. Only by establishing a complete institutional system covering information release review, platform usage norms, and the restraint of Party members’ behaviors, and strictly implementing it, can the online Party-building work be carried out in an orderly manner, enabling the Party-building work in universities to keep up with the development pace of the Internet era and giving full play to the important role of Party-building in educating people.
5. Conclusion
The application of smart education in the Party-building work among college students has brought new development opportunities and vitality to the Party-building work in universities. With advantages such as precise teaching, enhanced interactivity, and rich and diverse resources, it can effectively improve the quality and level of the Party-building work among college students. In the short term, the goals include achieving precise teaching, increasing student engagement, and enriching educational resources. In the long term, the objectives are to build a comprehensive, intelligent party-building education system, cultivate high-quality party-building talents, and drive continuous innovation in party-building education. These efforts will provide a solid foundation for nurturing well-rounded socialist builders and successors with moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor development. Although some challenges are faced during the application process, by adopting effective countermeasures, such as strengthening technical support, improving teachers’ information-based capabilities, and cultivating students’ autonomous learning abilities, smart education is bound to play a greater role in the Party-building work among college students, providing a solid guarantee for cultivating socialist builders and successors with all-round development in morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor.