Exploration on the Risks of Convergence and Mitigation Strategies in Vocational Undergraduate Education: A Comparative Perspective of Vocational Undergraduate and Applied Undergraduate Education

As an important type of higher education, vocational undergraduate education and applied undergraduate education share their roots in early industrial education. Throughout historical evolution, their educational philosophies have been mutually referenced and inherited. In terms of disciplinary architecture, their program offerings exhibit both overlap and complementarity, while talent cultivation specifications diverge based on educational philosophies, disciplinary structures, and societal demands. Currently, vocational undergraduate education confronts the risk of convergence, which is specifically manifested in three aspects: its educational functions are alienated and deviate from the vocational essence due to the influence of institutional isomorphism mechanisms; identity ambiguity and trust deficit arise in social recognition due to factors such as the "pseudo-environment"; resource allocation suffers from misinvestment and low-output inefficiencies. To circumvent the risk of convergence, vocational undergraduate colleges need to return to their essence, anchor characteristic positioning and target frameworks, construct a new ecosystem of human capital supply-demand alignment, school-enterprise collaboration, and digital campus through multi-stakeholder synergy, and reshape the teaching characteristics of vocational education. Driven by innovation, with the integration of science, technology, and education as the entry point, they should break the path dependence of resource allocation, achieve differentiated development, clarify the positioning of differentiated talent cultivation, and improve the talent cultivation model and standard system.