Positioning higher education as the vanguard for building a leading nation in education reflects a consensus drawn from history and addresses the competitive demands of the contemporary world. Moreover, it stands as a crucial strategic choice for China's new path to modernization. To fulfill this leading role, it is imperative to: enhance the effectiveness of the “Double First-Class Initiative” and advance the innovative development of graduate education; improve the quality of mass higher education and promote coordinated regional development; optimize foundational functions while cultivating emerging ones; accelerate the digital transformation of education while systematically planning for educational reform in the digital era; refine the internationalization framework of higher education and optimize strategies for global engagement; and finally, advance institutional innovation at the regional, municipal, and university levels.