Abstract:

Academic aspirations are an important manifestation of students’ academic ideals, interests, ambitions, and commitment to sustained academic engagement, and they constitute an essential quality for top-tier innovative talents. This study conducted in-depth interviews with 20 undergraduate students enrolled in the “Top-Tier Talent Cultivation Program” and collected their original interview records as textual data. Drawing on the perspective of Social Ecosystem Theory, the study investigated the influencing factors of these students’ academic aspirations across four ecological levels, which are microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem, focusing on four dimensions: innate traits, personal effort, support from others, and the institutional environment. On this basis, the study proposed four suggestions, including fostering students’ stable personality traits and comprehensive competencies, developing high-quality institutional and family support environments, strengthening the integration of multi-party resources and external participation, and building an effective system of institutional incentives and cultural support.

Key words: Social Ecosystem Theory, Top-Tier Talent Cultivation Program, undergraduate students, academic aspirations, influencing factors