Journal of Higher Education Research

Against the backdrop of accelerated globalization and China’s increasingly prominent role in global governance, higher foreign language education is tasked with cultivating talents possessing international competence. However, ideological and political education in English courses at medical universities often suffers from superficial implementation and forced integration. This paper elaborates on the origin and dimensions of global competence and, based on the characteristics of medical university students, identifies four dimensions and twenty-three indicators of their global competence. It further analyzes the issues existing in the ideological and political teaching of English courses in Chinese medical universities in terms of teaching philosophy, objectives, resources, and methods. Oriented by global competence, the paper proposes practical pathways including multi-level needs analysis, clear teaching objectives, integration of region-specific ideological and political resources, and the use of digital empowerment to design tasks and evaluation systems. These recommendations aim to provide feasible solutions for high-quality ideological and political education in English courses at medical universities, thereby enhancing medical students' comprehensive competencies in global contexts.