Building a Root-Securing and Soul-Forging Ideological and Political Education System

In January of this year, the *Outline of the Plan for Building a Strong Education Country (2024–2035)* [1]1 The *Outline of the Plan for Building a Strong Education Country (2024–2035)* is a central policy document issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council in January 2025, setting strategic goals for China’s education system over the next decade. issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council explicitly proposed building a root-securing and soul-forging ideological and political education system. As the front-line positions of socialist ideological work, institutions of higher learning must bear in mind the mission of educating people for the Party and cultivating talent for the country, persist in taking fostering virtue and nurturing people as the central link, integrate ideological and political work throughout the entire process of education and teaching, build a root-securing and soul-forging ideological and political education system, and strive to cultivate new generations capable of shouldering the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

今年1月，中共中央、国务院印发的《教育强国建设规划纲要（2024—2035年）》明确提出，要构建固本铸魂的思想政治教育体系。高校作为社会主义意识形态工作的前沿阵地，必须牢记为党育人、为国育才使命，坚持把立德树人作为中心环节，把思想政治工作贯穿教育教学全过程，构建固本铸魂的思想政治教育体系，着力培养能够担当民族复兴大任的时代新人。

I. Fully Recognizing the Significance of Building a Root-Securing and Soul-Forging Ideological and Political Education System in Higher Education Institutions

一、充分认识高校构建固本铸魂思想政治教育体系的重要意义

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “The purpose of our building a strong education country is to cultivate generation after generation of socialist builders and successors who are well-developed morally, intellectually, physically, aesthetically, and labor-wise, and to cultivate generation after generation of pillars of talent who can be of great use and bear heavy responsibilities in socialist modernization, ensuring that the Party’s cause and the building of a strong socialist modernization country have successors.” [2]2 This is a direct quotation from Xi Jinping’s speech at the Fifth Collective Study Session of the Politburo of the 20th CPC Central Committee on May 29, 2023, concerning the building of a strong education country. Fostering virtue first and cultivating the self as the foundation—this is the basic logic of talent growth. Only by building a root-securing and soul-forging ideological and political education system, and by guiding, influencing, and inspiring people through ideological and political education, can we forge a strong ideological and political guiding force in promoting the all-round development of young students morally, intellectually, physically, aesthetically, and labor-wise, and accelerate the building of a socialist education country with Chinese characteristics.

习近平总书记指出：“我们建设教育强国的目的，就是培养一代又一代德智体美劳全面发展的社会主义建设者和接班人，培养一代又一代在社会主义现代化建设中可堪大用、能担重任的栋梁之才，确保党的事业和社会主义现代化强国建设后继有人。”立德为先，修身为本，这是人才成长的基本逻辑。只有构建固本铸魂的思想政治教育体系，通过思想政治教育来引导人、感化人、激励人，才能在推动广大青年学生德智体美劳全面发展中锻造强大思政引领力，加快建设中国特色社会主义教育强国。

The political requirement of upholding and strengthening the Party’s overall leadership over higher education institutions. Our higher education institutions are institutions under the leadership of the Party; they are socialist higher education institutions with Chinese characteristics. Building a root-securing and soul-forging ideological and political education system is an inevitable requirement for our Party to strengthen its overall leadership over all work in higher education institutions, including scientific research, talent cultivation, social services, cultural innovation, and international cooperation. It ensures that higher education institutions always adhere to the guidance of Marxism, fully implement the Party’s education policy, unswervingly follow the path of socialist education development with Chinese characteristics, uphold the socialist orientation in running schools, continuously cultivate and promote the core socialist values, and provide political guarantees for accelerating the building of a high-quality education system and cultivating socialist builders and successors who are well-developed morally, intellectually, physically, aesthetically, and labor-wise.

坚持和加强党对高校全面领导的政治要求。我们的高校是党领导下的高校，是中国特色社会主义高校。构建固本铸魂的思想政治教育体系，是我们党加强对高校科学研究、人才培养、社会服务、文化创新、国际合作等各项工作全面领导的必然要求，确保高校始终坚持以马克思主义为指导，全面贯彻党的教育方针，坚定不移走中国特色社会主义教育发展道路，坚持社会主义办学方向，不断培育和弘扬社会主义核心价值观，为加快建设高质量教育体系、培养德智体美劳全面发展的社会主义建设者和接班人提供政治保障。

The inherent requirement for promoting the high-quality development of ideological and political education in higher education institutions. At present, the world is undergoing changes unseen in a century, which are accelerating. Ideological and political education in higher education institutions faces a more complex external environment, and the growth and development of college students also exhibit many new characteristics. In addition, the impact of network information technology and artificial intelligence on traditional ideological and political education is growing. On the new journey of the New Era, only by deeply grasping the era background and practical needs of the growth and development of youth groups, building a root-securing and soul-forging ideological and political education system, deeply advancing the reform and innovation of ideological and political education, making up for shortcomings, strengthening weak links, continuously improving the capability and level of ideological and political work, and striving to achieve a more steadfast political direction in running schools, a more powerful ideological guidance, more precise value guidance, more considerate psychological health counseling, more solid academic and employment guidance, deeper cultural practice immersion, more convenient affairs management services, and more efficient emergency response, can we further promote the high-quality development of ideological and political education in higher education institutions.

推动高校思想政治教育高质量发展的内在要求。当前，世界百年变局加速演进，高校思想政治教育面临更加复杂的外部环境，大学生成长发展也呈现出许多新特点。此外，网络信息技术、人工智能发展对传统思想政治教育的冲击越来越大。新时代新征程，只有深刻把握青年群体成长发展的时代背景和现实需求，构建固本铸魂的思想政治教育体系，深入推进思想政治教育改革创新，补短板、强弱项，不断提升思政工作能力和水平，努力实现办学政治方向更坚定、意识形态引领更有力、思想价值引导更精准、心理健康疏导更贴心、学业就业指导更扎实、文化实践浸润更深入、事务管理服务更便捷、应急事件处突更高效，才能进一步推动高校思想政治教育高质量发展。

The practical requirement for implementing the project of fostering virtue and nurturing people in the New Era. School ideological and political work is not simply a matter of a single line of work; it should be all-encompassing. Only by integrating ideological and political work throughout the talent cultivation system can we better exert the synergistic effect of fostering virtue and nurturing people through integration, embedding, and infiltration. Young students are in the critical period of life’s growth, like jointing and booting in a plant’s development; their knowledge system is not yet fully constructed, their value formation is not yet finalized, and their emotions and psychology are not yet mature. Strengthening timely, effective, and powerful guidance for young students means integrating ideological and political work into all aspects of education and teaching, such as moral and ethical construction, cultural knowledge transmission, and social practice. It means persisting in centering on students, caring for students, and serving students, continuously improving students’ ideological level, political awareness, moral quality, and cultural literacy, so that students become well-rounded talents with both moral integrity and professional competence.

实施新时代立德树人工程的现实要求。学校思想政治工作不是单纯一条线的工作，而应该是全方位的。只有将思想政治工作贯穿人才培养体系，才能更好发挥融入式、嵌入式、渗入式的立德树人协同效应。青年学生正处于人生拔节孕穗期，知识体系搭建尚未完成，价值观塑造尚未成型，情感心理尚未成熟。加强对青年学生的及时引领、有效引领、强大引领，就是要把思想政治工作融入思想道德建设、文化知识传授、社会实践等教育教学各环节，坚持围绕学生、关爱学生、服务学生，不断提高学生思想水平、政治觉悟、道德品质、文化素养，让学生成为德才兼备、全面发展的人才。

II. Accurately Grasping the Connotation and Essence of Building a Root-Securing and Soul-Forging Ideological and Political Education System in Higher Education Institutions

二、准确把握高校构建固本铸魂思想政治教育体系的内涵要义

The construction of an ideological and political education system runs through the entire process of school governance and institutional development. Accurately grasping the connotation and essence of building a root-securing and soul-forging ideological and political education system in higher education institutions is conducive to promoting the integration and innovative combination of this “lifeline” of ideological and political work with other tasks, further consolidating the foundation for building an education country with strong ideological and political guiding force.

思想政治教育体系建设，贯穿学校办学治校和事业发展始终。准确把握高校构建固本铸魂思想政治教育体系的内涵要义，有利于推动思想政治工作这一“生命线”与其他各项工作贯穿结合、融合创新，为建设具有强大思政引领力的教育强国进一步夯实根基。

A system embodying the political, people’s, and strategic attributes of education. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at the 2024 National Education Conference: “The strong education country we aim to build is a socialist education country with Chinese characteristics, which should possess a strong ideological and political guiding force, talent competitiveness, scientific and technological support, people’s livelihood guarantee, social synergy, and international influence.” [3]3 This refers to Xi Jinping’s speech at the National Education Conference held on September 9–10, 2024, in Beijing, which outlined the vision for a socialist education country with Chinese characteristics. Building a root-securing and soul-forging ideological and political education system means, by shaping a strong ideological and political guiding force, strengthening the Party’s overall leadership over education work, ensuring that the building of a strong education country always adheres to the correct political direction, and manifesting the political attribute of education; adhering to a people-centered approach, fully meeting the new demands and expectations of the people for the development of education, and highlighting the people’s attribute of education; placing the building of a strong education country within the era context of comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-path modernization, unswervingly serving the building of a strong socialist modernization country, and clarifying the strategic attribute of education.

蕴含教育的政治属性、人民属性、战略属性的体系。习近平总书记在2024年全国教育大会上强调，“我们要建成的教育强国，是中国特色社会主义教育强国，应当具有强大的思政引领力、人才竞争力、科技支撑力、民生保障力、社会协同力、国际影响力”。构建固本铸魂思想政治教育体系，就是通过塑造强大思政引领力，加强党对教育工作的全面领导，确保教育强国建设始终坚持正确政治方向，彰显教育的政治属性；坚持以人民为中心，充分满足人民群众对教育事业发展的新要求新期待，突出教育的人民属性；把教育强国建设置于以中国式现代化全面推进强国建设、民族复兴伟业的时代背景下统筹推进，坚定不移服务社会主义现代化强国建设，明晰教育的战略属性。

A system of pluralistic integration and coordinated linkage. The *Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of the Ideological and Political Work System in Higher Education Institutions* [4]4 This document, issued by the Ministry of Education and seven other central departments in 2020, provides a framework for constructing a comprehensive ideological and political work system in Chinese universities. issued by the Ministry of Education and seven other departments proposed accelerating the construction of an ideological and political work system in higher education institutions that includes seven sub-systems: the theoretical armed system, the disciplinary teaching system, the daily education system, the management service system, the security and stability system, the team building system, and the evaluation and supervision system. Among them, the theoretical armed system emphasizes strengthening political guidance, cultivating patriotic sentiments, and reinforcing value guidance; the disciplinary teaching system proposes running ideological and political theory courses well, strengthening the educational role of philosophy and social sciences, comprehensively advancing curriculum-based ideological and political education in all disciplines, and fully leveraging the educational function of scientific research; the daily education system proposes deepening practical education, enriching campus culture, strengthening online education, and promoting mental health; the management service system emphasizes improving the level of management services, strengthening the construction of mass organizations, promoting the construction of “one-stop” student communities, and improving targeted financial aid education; the security and stability system emphasizes strengthening political security in higher education institutions, enhancing national security education, building a solid campus security line, and improving the security responsibility system; the team building system proposes building a high-level teaching force, creating a high-quality team of ideological and political workers and Party affairs workers, and increasing the cultivation of Marxist scholars and young Marxists; the evaluation and supervision system emphasizes building a scientific evaluation system, improving the implementation mechanism, and strengthening the supervision and accountability mechanism. At the same time, each sub-system is interconnected, mutually supportive, and promotes each other’s development, driving the formation of an integrated and fully connected ideological and political work system in higher education institutions.

多元一体、协同联动的体系。教育部等八部门印发的《关于加快构建高校思想政治工作体系的意见》提出，要加快构建包括理论武装体系、学科教学体系、日常教育体系、管理服务体系、安全稳定体系、队伍建设体系、评估督导体系等七个子体系在内的高校思想政治工作体系。其中，理论武装体系强调要加强政治引领，厚植爱国情怀，强化价值引导；学科教学体系提出要办好思想政治理论课，强化哲学社会科学育人作用，全面推进所有学科课程思政建设，充分发挥科研育人功能；日常教育体系提出要深化实践教育，繁荣校园文化，加强网络育人，促进心理健康；管理服务体系强调要提高管理服务水平，加强群团组织建设，推动“一站式”学生社区建设，完善精准资助育人；安全稳定体系强调要强化高校政治安全，加强国家安全教育，筑牢校园安全防线，健全安全责任体系；队伍建设体系提出要建设高水平教师队伍，打造高素质思想政治工作和党务工作队伍，加大马克思主义学者和青年马克思主义者培养力度；评估督导体系强调要构建科学评测体系，完善推进落实机制，健全督导问责机制。同时，各子体系相互联系、互为支撑、互促发展，推动形成一体化、全贯通的高校思想政治工作体系。

A system that coordinates high-quality development and high-level security. Education is a great plan for the country and a great plan for the Party. We must proceed from the overall perspective of the development of the Party and the state’s cause, adhere to promoting high-level security through high-quality development and ensuring high-quality development with high-level security, thicken the foundation of high-level education security, promote the maintenance of a good situation of security and stability in the education system, and escort and lead Chinese-path modernization with the support and guidance of building a strong education country. Coordinating high-quality development and high-level security requires focusing on cultivating new generations capable of shouldering the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, using the Party’s innovative theories and correct political direction to unite, guide, and educate people. The builders and successors we cultivate must be firm supporters of the Communist Party of China and staunch defenders of the socialist system, must be firm defenders and inheritors and developers of the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and must be useful talents willing to dedicate what they have learned to the motherland and the people, determined to strive for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics for life. This requires us, through building a root-securing and soul-forging ideological and political education system, to strengthen political guidance, ideological direction, and value shaping for young students, ensuring that the vast majority of young students always listen to the Party and follow its lead.

统筹高质量发展和高水平安全的体系。教育是国之大计、党之大计。我们必须从党和国家事业发展全局高度出发，坚持以高质量发展促进高水平安全，以高水平安全保障高质量发展，厚植高水平教育安全根基，推动教育系统保持安全稳定良好局面，为以教育强国建设支撑引领中国式现代化保驾护航。统筹高质量发展和高水平安全，必须着眼培养担当民族复兴大任的时代新人，以党的创新理论和正确政治方向凝聚人、引导人、教育人。我们培养的建设者和接班人，必须是中国共产党的坚定拥护者和社会主义制度的坚定维护者，必须是中国特色社会主义道路的坚定捍卫者与继承发展者，必须是愿意将所学奉献给祖国和人民、立志为中国特色社会主义事业奋斗终身的有用人才。这就要求我们通过构建固本铸魂的思想政治教育体系，强化对青年学生的政治引领、思想引导和价值观塑造，确保广大青年学生始终听党话、跟党走。

III. Actively Exploring Effective Measures for Universities to Build a Political Education System That Consolidates Foundations and Forges the Soul

三、积极探索高校构建固本铸魂思想政治教育体系的有效举措

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, “Political education must be carried out with a clear-cut stance.” [5]5 “以师为先、以生为本” (yǐ shī wéi xiān, yǐ shēng wéi běn): A slogan meaning “putting teachers first and students as the foundation,” emphasizing the priority of faculty development while centering educational work on student needs. Building a political education system that consolidates foundations and forges the soul means taking fostering virtue and nurturing talent as the central task, running political work through the entire process of education and teaching, achieving all-staff, whole-process, and all-round education, and striving to open up new prospects for the development of China’s higher education.

习近平总书记强调，“要旗帜鲜明加强思想政治教育”。构建固本铸魂的思想政治教育体系，就是要坚持把立德树人作为中心环节，把思想政治工作贯穿教育教学全过程，实现全员、全程、全方位育人，努力开创我国高等教育事业发展新局面。

Strengthen top-level design. To build a political education system that consolidates foundations and forges the soul, it is necessary to uphold and strengthen the Party’s overall leadership, always keep a firm grip on the correct political direction, unremittingly

强化顶层设计。构建固本铸魂的思想政治教育体系，必须坚持和加强党的全面领导，始终把牢正确政治方向，坚持不懈用习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想铸魂育人，筑牢高校党员、干部和师生员工的思想根基，守好教育强国建设的思想阵地。坚持以谋划实施时代新人培育工程为抓手，以建设重大平台为牵引，以完善落实机制为基础，以强化领导统筹为保障，切实把倡导性的理念落实为操作性的举措，并贯穿到办学治校各领域、教育教学各环节、人才培养各方面。充分发挥党委把方向、管大局、作决策、抓班子、带队伍、保落实的领导作用，推动教师思政与学生思政齐头并进、相互促进，全面实现“政治教导有方、思想引导有力、发展指导有效”的教育效果。

Strengthen team building. To build a political education system that consolidates foundations and forges the soul, it is necessary to grasp the key subject of the teaching force, insist that educators be educated first, and enable university teachers to become disseminators of advanced ideology and culture and firm supporters of the Party’s governance, thereby better shouldering the responsibility of guiding and leading students in their healthy growth. Adhere to a problem-oriented approach, focus on the shortcomings and weaknesses of university ideological and political theory course teachers in terms of theoretical grounding, practical experience, and teaching methods, and carry out targeted remediation and key breakthroughs, striving to enhance the capacity for theoretical interpretation, practical organization, and educational innovation, and comprehensively improve professional competence. Strengthen the construction of teacher ethics and conduct, adhere to the unity of teaching and educating, the unity of verbal instruction and personal example, the unity of dedicated inquiry and attention to society, and the unity of academic freedom and academic norms, and guide the broad body of teachers to establish themselves through virtue, to pursue learning through virtue, and to teach through virtue.

加强队伍建设。构建固本铸魂的思想政治教育体系，必须把握教师队伍这一关键主体，坚持教育者先受教育，使高校教师成为先进思想文化的传播者、党执政的坚定支持者，更好担负起学生健康成长指导者和引路人的责任。坚持问题导向，聚焦高校思政课教师在理论功底、实践经验、教学方法等方面的短板弱项，针对性补缺补差、重点攻关，着力增强理论阐释能力、实践组织能力、教育创新能力，全面提高专业素养。加强师德师风建设，坚持教书和育人相统一、言传和身教相统一、潜心问道和关注社会相统一、学术自由和学术规范相统一，引导广大教师以德立身、以德立学、以德施教。

Follow the laws of work. To build a political education system that consolidates foundations and forges the soul, it is necessary to follow the laws of ideological and political work, follow the laws of teaching and educating, and follow the laws of student growth, and continuously improve work capacity and standards. Insist on making good use of the main channel of classroom teaching, strengthen ideological and theoretical education through improvement, enhance the affinity and pertinence of ideological and political education, and meet the needs and expectations of students’ growth and development. Uphold the concept of “putting teachers first and students as the foundation,” fully mobilize the initiative, enthusiasm, and creativity of teachers and students in ideological and political education, and realize teacher-student interaction and mutual improvement through teaching. On the one hand, provide high-quality educational resources for the comprehensive development of students’ ideological and political quality, scientific and cultural quality, and physical and mental health quality; on the other hand, fully stimulate students’ endogenous motivation for self-education, self-management, self-service, and self-development, achieving a transformation from passive education to active education. Build a new platform for ideological and political education through integrated media, form an all-round, all-time pattern of educating and nurturing talent both online and offline, and continuously enhance the contemporary appeal of ideological and political education.

遵循工作规律。构建固本铸魂的思想政治教育体系，必须遵循思想政治工作规律，遵循教书育人规律，遵循学生成长规律，不断提高工作能力和水平。坚持用好课堂教学这个主渠道，在改进中加强思想理论教育，提升思想政治教育亲和力和针对性，满足学生成长发展需求和期待。秉承“以师为先、以生为本”理念，充分调动师生在思想政治教育中的主动性、积极性与创造性，实现师生互动、教学相长。既为学生思想政治素质、科学文化素质、身心健康素质的全面发展提供优质教育资源，又充分激发学生自我教育、自我管理、自我服务、自我发展的内生动力，实现从被动教育到主动教育的转变。构建融媒体思政教育新平台，形成网上网下全方位全时空育人育才格局，不断增强思想政治教育时代性感召力。

(Author: Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Central China Normal University, Executive Deputy Director of the Ministry of Education’s Innovation and Development Center for Ideological and Political Work in Higher Education Institutions [Central China Normal University])

（作者：华中师范大学党委副书记、教育部高校思想政治工作创新发展中心〔华中师范大学〕常务副主任）

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心