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Abstract Education, science and technology, and human capital constitute the foundational and strategic pillars of China’s modernization. As technological iteration accelerates and global competition intensifies, structural tensions within China’s education–research–industry system have become increasingly salient. Problems such as the misalignment between educational supply and industrial demand, the disconnection between scientific innovation and technological application, and the mismatch between talent cultivation and regional carrying capacity continue to surface. A systematic assessment of the level and spatio-temporal evolution of the integrated advancement of education, science and technology, and talent is therefore essential for optimizing spatial layout and improving policy precision, and for advancing the development of new productive forces and achieving high-level technological self-reliance. Existing research, however, remains limited in three respects: (1) quantitative and dynamic measurement of integrated advancement is still underdeveloped; (2) prevailing theories fail to reveal the interaction mechanisms at the factor level, and insufficiently examine the foundational role of education, science and technology, and talent as basic inputs in supporting innovation, nor do they adequately address elements, functions, and spatial structures at the innovation-system level; and (3) analyses have yet to deepen their spatial scale, as most conclusions are drawn from province-level studies and thus fail to capture convergence patterns and evolutionary dynamics at finer spatial levels, potentially obscuring intra-regional differences and hindering the identification of deeper structural sources of regional divergence in innovation capacity.
Building on a systematic review of the theoretical, historical, and policy logics of integrated advancement, this study constructs a twelve-indicator evaluation system across the three dimensions of education, science and technology, and talent, using the Delphi method and entropy weighting. We assess the structural, status, and trend dimensions of integrated advancement for 284 prefecture-level cities from 2010 to 2021, and analyze their regional disparities and spatio-temporal evolution.
The findings indicate that the overall level of integrated advancement has steadily improved, yet the composite index remains relatively unbalanced and low; the mutual reinforcement among education, science and technology, and talent has not fully translated into synergistic effects. Spatially, eastern coastal regions have formed a relatively complete positive cycle, whereas central, northeastern, and western regions face pronounced shortcomings in talent carrying capacity, scientific research platforms, and basic educational provision. Significant regional differences and clustering patterns persist, though disparities at the national scale and within regions are gradually narrowing. Most of the variation arises between regions rather than within them, suggesting institutional constraints such as insufficient cross-regional coordination, administrative boundary effects, and barriers to factor mobility. Local results further show that weak educational foundations, talent outflows, and a shortage of scientific research platforms create broken factor chains that underpin low-value clusters. The dynamic evolution of integrated advancement exhibits stability, gradualism, and incremental optimization, but also faces pressures of fluctuation and divergence; resource siphoning effects are evident, mid-level regions are more vulnerable to external shocks and risk falling into a long-term “middle-stratum trap”， and late-developing regions struggle with insufficient factor-attraction mechanisms and limited conversion capacity.
Accordingly, this study proposes strengthening planning integration, factor integration, and regional integration to build a high-quality coordination system aligned with national strategic needs, and to accelerate higher-quality integrated advancement in education, science and technology, and talent.
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Published: 01 April 2026
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