The “Three-All Education” approach—encompassing all staff, all processes, and all dimensions—is an innovative platform for enhancing ideological and political education (IPE) in universities while imparting knowledge.
In December 2017, the Ministry of Education issued the Guidelines for Improving the Quality of Ideological and Political Work in Higher Education Institutions, which explicitly emphasized the importance of curriculum-based moral education: “It is necessary to fully utilize the educational functions of curricula, research, practice, and culture; identify educational elements; refine mechanisms; and comprehensively promote curriculum-based moral education” (
In recent years, domestic universities have increasingly prioritized curriculum-based moral education. Shanghai was an early adopter of the “curriculum ideological and political education” concept. In 2014, the Shanghai municipal government issued the Shanghai Education Comprehensive Reform Plan (2014-2020), which incorporated moral education, including IPE, into the broader education reform goals. Guided by this framework, Shanghai universities have integrated IPE elements into various courses since 2016. For example, in addition to strengthening traditional IPE courses, universities developed innovative curricula like “Grand Strategy” to explore ideological resources within other disciplines. This initiative significantly influenced the study and practice of curriculum-based moral education.
Some scholars have emphasized the need to align curriculum-based moral education more closely with the demands of the era. For example,
Internationally, universities also emphasize curriculum-based moral education, adhering to a student-centered philosophy and prioritizing holistic development. Beyond knowledge transfer, these institutions focus on fostering critical thinking, innovation, social responsibility, and global perspectives. For example, University College London plans to launch an undergraduate program in “Arts and Technology” by September 2025, exploring connections between arts, humanities, and sciences to cultivate interdisciplinary talents capable of excelling in fields such as digital culture, environmental design, and computer science. In the U.S., universities are breaking traditional curricular boundaries through theme-based, interdisciplinary knowledge integration. Northwestern University’s School of Engineering has implemented a “Whole-Brain Engineering” model that incorporates theater, music, and visual arts to enhance students’ technical skills and cultural literacy. Olin College’s “Sketch Model” project requires students to integrate technology with humanistic and artistic considerations, ensuring their innovations address real societal needs. Similarly, Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands combines technical instruction with discussions on societal values and ethics in its “Technology and Society” courses (
From the current research findings, while universities at home and abroad place significant emphasis on curriculum-based education, several common challenges remain. These include a singular evaluation system, uneven distribution of teaching resources, insufficient innovation in teaching methods, disparities in educational environments and cultural contexts, and inadequate integration of science, education, and industry. Moreover, curriculum reforms in universities worldwide tend to focus primarily on ideological and political education within individual courses or disciplines, with limited research on the collaborative relationships among key elements of the curriculum-based education system. The existing frameworks lack in-depth exploration and systematic analysis of the implementation pathways for graduate-level curriculum-based education systems. They also fail to propose frameworks specifically tailored to the unique characteristics of graduate education. In addition, compared to their international counterparts, domestic universities face distinct challenges, such as limited flexibility in curriculum design, a lack of cutting-edge and practical course content, outdated teaching methods and philosophies, underdeveloped evaluation and incentive mechanisms, and the need for improvement in the educational environment and atmosphere. These issues highlight the pressing need for targeted reforms in curriculum-based education systems. Consequently, existing frameworks fall short of meeting the demands of the “Three-All Education” philosophy. This paper, grounded in the “Three-All Education” perspective, examines the educational functions of postgraduate curricula, analyzes their current state, identifies challenges, and proposes strategies for improvement.
Although many universities are advancing postgraduate curriculum construction under the “Three-All Education” philosophy, including reforms in ideological and political education (IPE) courses, the integration of IPE elements into professional courses, and innovations in teaching methods, several challenges remain. By searching relevant literature on major academic websites both domestically and internationally and conducting a literature review, it was found that the construction of graduate curriculum-based education systems in universities faces issues related to explicit and implicit systemic structures, teaching models and philosophies, the applicability of course content, and methods of curriculum evaluation. Taking Jiangsu University as an example, a questionnaire survey was conducted to explore these four issues under the theme of graduate curriculum-based education. Surveys were administered both in paper and online formats, distributing 1200 questionnaires (200 to doctoral students and 1000 to master’s students). After collection, 1140 valid responses were obtained (180 from doctoral students and 960 from master’s students), resulting in an overall effective response rate of 95%. Through scientific statistical analysis and rigorous synthesis of the collected data, common issues were identified. The findings revealed that only 10% of graduate students rated their overall satisfaction with the systemic design of the current graduate curriculum as “satisfactory.” Similarly, only 35% expressed satisfaction with the teaching models, philosophies, and applicability of course content, while 40% were satisfied with the current methods of curriculum evaluation.
In recent years, universities have conducted extensive research and practical work in graduate education, and the construction of graduate curricula has received unprecedented attention. However, while many institutions emphasize the role of explicit curricula, they often overlook the significance of implicit curricula. This study revealed through investigation that most universities in China do not adequately value implicit curricula in the implementation of “curriculum-based education.” They fail to approach, understand, and implement curriculum-based education from the perspective of the entire curriculum, which includes both explicit and implicit components. The critical role of implicit curricula remains underestimated, with ideological and political education functions largely confined to disciplinary curricula, neglecting the implicit curriculum components at the material, conceptual, behavioral, and institutional levels.
In fact, implicit curricula represent a significant portion of the entire curriculum and play a more substantial role in curriculum-based education, a role that cannot be ignored. In the practical teaching of school disciplines, teachers inherently implement both explicit and implicit curricula. In some disciplines, particularly in the natural sciences (such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry), the educational function of the curriculum is often realized primarily through the implicit curriculum. This includes the material, conceptual, behavioral, and institutional dimensions of implicit curricula, which consciously and unconsciously influence students’ ideological and political development. Implicit curricula form a crucial half of the curriculum landscape. Neglecting them renders the notion of “whole curriculum education” an empty promise, inevitably undermining the effectiveness of curriculum-based education.
While the importance of curriculum-based moral education is increasingly recognized, implementation remains inadequate in teaching methods and educational concepts. Many courses still prioritize academic knowledge transmission while neglecting the cultivation of students’ humanistic qualities, social responsibility, and holistic development. This narrow focus limits students’ comprehensive skill development, leading to decreased motivation and interest in learning.
Traditional teaching models often place instructors at the center of the classroom, relying on lecture-based knowledge delivery with limited student participation. Such “spoon-feeding” methods restrict active thinking, exploration, and interaction among students and teachers, resulting in suboptimal outcomes for curriculum-based moral education. Furthermore, outdated teaching philosophies persist in some areas, such as prioritizing research over teaching, intellectual education over moral education, theory over practice, and results over processes. These antiquated approaches are reflected in several aspects, including outdated perspectives on talent cultivation, unreasonable curriculum design, insufficient emphasis on fostering innovation and practical abilities, neglect of interdisciplinary education and global perspectives, and inadequate attention to students’ overall development and emotional well-being. These issues hinder the cultivation of high-level graduate talents. Survey findings reveal that some universities’ graduate curricula are overly theoretical, lacking practical components. For instance, in certain engineering programs, graduate courses are heavily focused on advanced theoretical knowledge with little connection to the practical needs of the industry. This disconnect results in graduates struggling to apply their knowledge effectively in real-world settings, leaving them with insufficient practical skills. Moreover, some universities rely excessively on exam scores for graduate assessment, overlooking the evaluation of students’ innovation and practical abilities. This approach encourages a focus on test-taking strategies, where students may excel in exams but fail to develop critical skills in innovation and practical application. Such assessment practices ultimately undermine the goal of cultivating well-rounded and competent graduate-level professionals.
Some postgraduate courses are overly focused on theoretical knowledge while neglecting practical applications. A lack of practical components, such as laboratory work, internships, and training facilities, severely limits the development of students’ practical skills. This disconnect results in students who excel in theoretical understanding but struggle to apply their knowledge to real-world situations.
Additionally, some courses have outdated content that fails to reflect evolving societal and industry needs. This lack of relevance and innovation in course content hinders students’ employability and career development. Furthermore, instructors with limited industry experience may struggle to incorporate the latest knowledge, technologies, and professional skills into their teaching, leaving students ill-prepared for internships and job placements.
Current evaluation methods for postgraduate courses rely heavily on exam scores and research outputs, neglecting assessments of students’ comprehensive qualities, practical abilities, and innovative potential. Such limited evaluation metrics fail to holistically reflect students’ capabilities and progress.
Some postgraduate courses also lack effective incentives to motivate students, with rewards primarily focused on academic achievements while overlooking broader developmental goals. This focus undermines students’ enthusiasm and sense of purpose in their studies.
The core of curriculum-based moral education lies in integrating implicit moral education into the curriculum. Professional courses should balance the assessment of “ideological and political elements” with professional knowledge. However, many universities separate the evaluation of professional courses and IPE courses, neglecting the coordination between them. This fragmented approach limits the effectiveness of curriculum-based moral education and does not align with the “Three-All Education” philosophy.
Based on the shortcomings identified in the construction of graduate curriculum-based education systems, the new era should adopt the “Three-All Education” philosophy as a guiding framework to establish a systematic and comprehensive graduate curriculum-based education system. Taking Jiangsu University as an example, this includes building an integrated curriculum system that combines explicit and implicit curricula, promoting innovation in teaching models and philosophies, enriching the curriculum with experimental and practical courses, comprehensive quality development, and competency expansion courses, and establishing a scientific curriculum evaluation system.
The curriculum serves as a bridge between teachers and students, enabling educators to deliver education and assist students in developing essential qualities. From the perspective of its form, the curriculum can be divided into two categories: explicit and implicit. Explicit curricula include ideological and political education courses, disciplinary professional courses, general education courses, and practical activity courses. Implicit curricula encompass material, conceptual, behavioral, and institutional dimensions, indirectly influencing students’ ideological, political, and moral character. These implicit curricula exert a broader, longer-lasting, and more profound impact.
Both explicit and implicit curricula play indispensable roles in fostering students’ ideological and moral development. Therefore, advancing graduate curriculum-based education requires the establishment of a unified system that integrates explicit and implicit curricula to maximize their educational functions.
At Jiangsu University, the recently revised graduate curriculum system exemplifies this approach. It includes an explicit education curriculum system centered on core professional degree courses, foundational theory courses, mandatory public courses, professional electives, and general electives. Simultaneously, it features an implicit education curriculum system supported by practice and innovation courses, competency expansion courses, extracurricular practice and innovation activities, faculty-student interactions, and specialized seminars.
Teaching should not only focus on knowledge transmission but also emphasize the cultivation of students’ abilities and the shaping of their values. The educational objectives must be integrated into course goals, ensuring a balance between knowledge impartation and skill development. Additionally, teaching must address multiple dimensions of graduate growth, including academic literacy, moral character, mental health, and social responsibility.
Universities should build a diversified curriculum system that includes not only professional knowledge courses but also courses on mental health education, career planning, and social practice. This approach ensures a holistic focus on students’ comprehensive development and enhances their sense of social responsibility. Moreover, universities should leverage internal and external resources to organize rich extracurricular activities, such as lectures, forums, and volunteer services, helping students develop through practice. By adopting multidimensional educational strategies, institutions can improve students’ overall quality and equip them with stronger adaptability and competitiveness in their future careers.
The concept of curriculum-based education also requires further refinement, especially in establishing mechanisms for comprehensive participation. By involving all stakeholders, implementing whole-process education, and adopting an all-encompassing approach, institutions can effectively achieve educational goals. This fosters highly qualified graduates who possess both solid professional knowledge and a strong sense of humanity and social responsibility. Such an approach aligns with the demands of the modern era and provides new directions for graduate education reform and development.
For example, the latest 2024 revised graduate training program at Jiangsu University incorporates various measures to innovate teaching philosophies and models. These include optimizing the curriculum system, increasing the development of high-quality courses, textbooks, and teaching cases, improving course assessment methods, reforming teaching techniques, enhancing practical teaching, promoting faculty-student interaction, and fostering integrated innovation. The overall objective is to align teaching models with national development needs and industry demands, cultivating high-quality graduates who meet societal requirements.
Additionally, the program emphasizes differentiated development for academic and professional graduate education. This entails designing tailored teaching models for different types of students. The program also upholds the principle of “fostering virtue and nurturing talent” to develop graduates who are morally upright and competent. Teaching models are expected to prioritize not only knowledge transmission but also moral education and the enhancement of students’ overall competencies.
To address issues such as the low proportion of practical courses in postgraduate curricula, limited training in the operation of specialized equipment and professional skills, and the weak alignment between course content and societal needs, reforms in postgraduate curricula must focus on increasing the weight of practical courses. These reforms should aim to expand students’ knowledge, improve their professional and practical skills, and enhance their innovative and collaborative capabilities.
Taking Jiangsu University as an example, significant emphasis is placed on the practical effectiveness of experimental and practice-based courses in graduate education. A series of high-quality experimental and practical courses are specifically designed for graduate students to enhance their training in equipment operation and practical skills. Internal educational resources are integrated to collaborate with the university’s foundational engineering training center, offering industry-oriented practice courses. These courses incorporate components such as labor skills and workplace safety education, aiming to cultivate students’ professional competencies, practical abilities, integrative innovation skills, and teamwork capabilities. This approach ensures an organic combination of knowledge transmission and skill development. For graduates in fields such as engineering, medicine, information technology, management, and specific industry sectors (e.g., chemical and energy industries, manufacturing, and construction), integrating labor skills and occupational safety education into the curriculum not only enhances their practical skills and safety awareness but also lays a solid foundation for their future career development.
Theoretical coursework should include more practical components, with experiential teaching activities designed to increase student participation, foster research aptitude, and enhance hands-on skills. Additionally, promoting a culture of innovation in practice, such as organizing postgraduate students to participate in innovation and practice competitions, will create a dynamic atmosphere for science and technology innovation, enhancing students’ creative thinking and practical capabilities.
Further efforts should focus on integrating external teaching resources, building a complementary teaching team with expertise from both university faculty and external industry professionals. Regularly inviting corporate and industry experts to teach in universities can provide students with insights into cutting-edge economic and social needs. Research-driven case study teaching should be expanded, with discussions centered on key or representative issues, to improve the effectiveness of practical education. Efforts should be intensified to strengthen external practice resources, provincial-level graduate workstations, and university-level graduate practice bases. Collaborations with leading domestic universities and research institutes should be expanded to jointly train graduate students. Significant emphasis should also be placed on strengthening the faculty team, including actively recruiting industry professors to participate in the development of professional and practical training platforms and teaching. Additionally, the engineering background and practical capabilities of professional degree supervisors should be enhanced to ensure high-quality mentorship and instruction.
To address the current challenges where many graduate students lack practical and innovative abilities, which limits their capacity to fully meet the demands of economic and social development, several measures can be adopted. These include reforming the curriculum system (integrating interdisciplinary courses and establishing a flexible course selection system), reforming academic organization and management (establishing interdisciplinary research institutions and evaluation mechanisms), and reforming the allocation of teaching resources (increasing investment in interdisciplinary resources and strengthening university-enterprise collaboration). Such efforts aim to enhance the construction of interdisciplinary and quality enhancement courses.
For instance, at Jiangsu University, interdisciplinary public elective courses for graduate students are offered, alongside the addition of philosophy and social science courses designed to improve students’ moral character, cultural literacy, and cognitive abilities. These courses aim to instill a sense of historical responsibility, promote cultural refinement, encourage an appreciation for aesthetics, and foster optimism. Patriotic and nationalistic values are integrated into teaching, helping students develop cultural awareness and confidence.
To further cultivate practical and innovative skills, graduate students are encouraged to participate in national and provincial innovation competitions, pass nationally recognized skill-based qualification exams, undertake language proficiency tests for studying abroad, and engage in social service activities such as teaching support, poverty alleviation, technological assistance, short-term public service projects, or overseas research exchanges lasting three months or more. These activities are included in the recognition framework for quality development credits, encouraging students to expand their knowledge beyond their primary discipline.
Efforts to broaden graduate students’ international perspectives include setting up special funds to support and encourage overseas exchange programs. Additionally, leveraging the compulsory graduate-level public English courses, the university organizes a “Graduate Simulated International Academic Conference Competition,” providing a platform for domestic and international graduate students to engage in discussions, compete, and exchange ideas across cultures.
Practical courses, such as writing and communication, general office software, and universal engineering software, are also incorporated into the elective curriculum to prepare students for their professional careers. These initiatives guide graduate students to actively address national economic needs, engage in societal development, and broaden their societal perspectives, thereby enhancing their sense of academic achievement, workplace competitiveness, and social contributions.
To better assess students’ comprehensive qualities and capabilities, the current evaluation system must be improved. Beyond traditional metrics such as exams and publication counts, evaluations should consider students’ practical abilities, innovative capacities, and overall competencies. A multi-faceted evaluation approach—incorporating self-assessment, peer evaluation, and teacher assessment—can provide a more comprehensive understanding of students’ progress.
Course evaluation should focus on two main aspects:
System-Wide Evaluation: This involves assessing the structure and fundamental functions of the entire curriculum, particularly the integration and synergy of explicit and implicit courses within the system.
Course Quality Evaluation: Teaching quality comprises two elements: the quality of teaching (“teach”) and the quality of learning (“learn”). The evaluation focus should shift from primarily assessing “learning” to prioritizing “teaching.” As teaching is a professional activity, its quality and effectiveness should be the primary subjects of evaluation. Assessment of “learning” serves as feedback to identify areas for improving “teaching” and “educating.”
Only by establishing a scientific course evaluation system can the effectiveness of education through curricula be ensured. Taking Jiangsu University as an example, the evaluation of graduate courses includes integrating the cultivation of students as one of the evaluation criteria and building a multi-stakeholder, multidimensional evaluation indicator system. Graduate course evaluation is jointly organized by the Graduate School and the relevant teaching colleges, covering all graduate courses.
The evaluation involves multiple participants, including course instructors, enrolled students, peer teachers, graduate education supervisors, and administrative staff. The evaluation adheres to principles of scientific rigor and fairness, with a focus on guiding improvements. Key evaluation components include the instructor’s professional ethics, teaching attitude, content quality, teaching methods, and effectiveness, as well as student satisfaction, perceived learning gains, completeness of course materials, and attainment of course objectives.
A “supervision, evaluation, feedback, and improvement” mechanism is established for the evaluation of graduate teaching processes and outcomes, aiming to enhance the overall quality of graduate course instruction. Measures such as strengthening quality assessments and evaluations of graduate courses are implemented to shift the focus of instructors from research to teaching. Graduate course teaching quality is incorporated as a critical criterion in performance evaluations and professional title assessments.
Courses ranked high in teaching quality are given priority for support in various excellent course initiatives, such as being selected as outstanding courses at the university or higher levels, receiving funding for development, and earning rewards in annual workload calculations. Conversely, courses ranked low in teaching quality are promptly reassigned to different instructors or removed from the curriculum.
In conclusion, by establishing a coupling mechanism between theoretical and practical teaching, creating a long-term mechanism for graduate practice-based education, optimizing course content and teaching methods, strengthening faculty development and collaboration in student cultivation, building a diversified curriculum system, establishing scientific evaluation mechanisms, deepening research-driven education, and fostering a supportive educational environment, these initiatives collectively ensure the long-term sustainability of the strategies mentioned above. These measures contribute significantly to cultivating highly qualified graduate students with innovative and practical capabilities, ultimately advancing national and societal prosperity.
Postgraduate education, as a critical component of higher education, not only aims to cultivate high-level professional talent but also shoulders the responsibility of serving national and societal development. It is a crucial period for students to form their values, worldviews, and outlooks on life. Therefore, creating a robust postgraduate curriculum-based moral education system is essential for supporting students’ holistic development. This study, grounded in the core task of “curriculum-based moral education”—identifying for whom, what, and how to educate—offers a comprehensive examination of building a postgraduate curriculum-based moral education system under the “Three-All Education” philosophy. By proposing pathways for improvement, including constructing unified curricula, fostering collaboration, and developing scientific evaluation systems, this paper contributes to advancing postgraduate education quality and effectiveness. Through collective efforts, postgraduate education will better serve national and societal development, nurturing a new generation of talent capable of undertaking the mission of national rejuvenation.