Journal of Higher Education Research

This study takes higher vocational colleges in Zhejiang Province as a case to systematically analyze the evolutionary stages, characteristics, and challenges of their high-level talent recruitment policies against the backdrop of vocational education reform. The research finds that these policies have generally evolved from a phase of “scale expansion” to one of “categorical quality enhancement”, and further toward “strategic ecosystem building”, reflecting a shift from meeting quantitative targets to fostering connotative development, and ultimately aligning with long-term strategic goals. Meanwhile, the study identifies persistent core issues in current talent recruitment efforts, including insufficient foresight in planning, underdeveloped support systems, and mismatches between evaluation mechanisms and the characteristics of high-level talent. Based on these findings, systematic recommendations for optimization are proposed, focusing on precision recruitment, professional support services, and development-oriented evaluation mechanisms.