China’s Sustainable Talent Cultivations for Basic Disciplines: Evaluating the Reformed National College Enrollment Policy

Understanding the effectiveness of implementation higher education policies could help stakeholders make informed decisions. As a relatively new policy, research on evaluation reformed national college enrollment policy—Strengthening Basic Disciplines Plan (SBDP), especially from perspective policy innovation and is limited. This study attempts to evaluate SBDP at an early stage, thereby understanding how effectively has been implemented what its innovations are. Utilizing documentation institutional admission documents, this operated qualitative data using semi-quantitative method, primarily focusing two comparisons: vs. Independent Enrollment Policy (IEP) documents. Results showed that most pilot institutions regulate documents in accordance with documentation. However, divergence practical implementations still exists, even under centralized governance. In addition, four major demand-oriented such as cultivating talents basic disciplines cultivation strategies were found, compared IEP. These findings have implications helping Chinese implement achieve sustainable talent for strategies.