Chunyan He, Gang Zhu

Chunyan He

May 05, 2026

Primary education major, Graduation thesis, Topic sources, Employment orientation, University-primary school cooperation.

This study examines undergraduate thesis topics from the Primary Education program at Harbin University, focusing on the 2023 cohort (156 theses) and 2024 cohort (167 theses), with an emphasis on two primary topic sources: instructor-assigned and student-proposed. Findings reveal that in 2023, instructor-recommended topics accounted for 60.1%, while student-initiated topics made up 39.3%; by 2024, instructor-assigned topics dropped to 18.2%, and student-proposed topics rose sharply to 67.3%, indicating a significant shift toward student autonomy in topic selection. To align with employment orientation and university-community collaboration needs, the study reclassifies topics into three types: employment-aligned, university-community cooperative, and career-development-oriented. It further proposes a three-dimensional optimization pathway—"employment anchoring, collaborative synergy, and academic empowerment"—offering strategic insights for enhancing thesis quality and the employment competitiveness of pre-service teachers.

© 2026, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license