A Study of Talents Flow in Chinese Higher Education Under the “Double-First-Class” Policy

In October 2015, the State Council issued the "Overall Plan for Promoting the Construction of World-class Universities and First-class Disciplines", which opened the prelude to the construction of world-class universities and first-class disciplines. The construction of "double-first-class" emphasizes the importance of talents, and regards building a team of first-class teachers and strengthening the leading role of high-level talents as the basic task of "double-first-class" construction. It can be said that talents are the fundamental guarantee of "double-first-class" construction. Reasonable and orderly talent flow provides power support for "double-first-class" construction. By employing literature research and comparative analysis methods, this paper briefly examines the relevant policies on talent management in colleges and universities before and after the implementation of the "double-first-class" initiative. It summarizes the policy variances in talent mobility within colleges and universities post-comparison. Prior to the "double-first-class" initiative, talents in colleges and universities primarily moved within the unified salary system of public institutions. After the construction of "double-first-class", colleges and universities are allowed to set their own salaries, which leads to the unhealthy tendency of local governments and colleges and universities to make use of high salaries to jointly poach talents. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the institutional system for talent mobility in universities, revise the evaluation criteria for talent titles, and boost support for the central and western regions.