Academic competitions serve as a crucial mechanism for higher education to fulfil its fundamental mission of fostering virtue through education and enhancing the quality of talent development. However, current practices often reveal significant issues, such as competitions being disconnected from the instructional system and the educational potential of these competitions remaining underutilized. This paper systematically analyses the educational value of academic competitions for university students across three dimensions: transforming students’ learning approaches, restructuring teachers’ instructional models, and enhancing students’ comprehensive competencies. It further identifies two prominent challenges in practice: the “separation of competitions and instruction” and the “utilitarian tendency.” To address these challenges, this paper proposes a teaching reform pathway centred on the integration of competitions and instruction, focusing on upgrading talent cultivation programs and strengthening faculty teams. It also constructs a trinity collaborative education system comprising “course foundation, research empowerment, and competition drive,” supported by a multi-collaborative teaching community, and establishes a long-term mechanism for competition-based education. The goal is to transform academic competitions from “an arena for a few elites” into “a growth platform for all students,” thereby contributing to the sustained improvement of talent cultivation quality in higher education.

Zhou Haifeng, Lou Youxin, Zhao Ping, Zhang Juan, Li Xiaozhou, Guo Dexi, Yang Zi, Jing Laiying, Hao Meilun. The Educational Value and Realization Pathway of Student Academic Competitions: From the Perspective of “Competition–Instruction Integration”. Frontiers in Educational Research (2026), Vol. 9, Issue 9: 89-94. https://doi.org/10.25236/FER.2026.090913.

[1] Qiao Jun-fei, LEI Fei, WANG Xinlu. Study on the coupling mechanism between science and technology competitions and college students’ interdisciplinary competence development from the perspective of competition-education integration[J]. Tsinghua Journal of Education, 2025, (05): 154- 160.

[2] Tian Shujian, Li Chongyang, Wang Tai. Exploration into the talent cultivation mechanism for innovation and entrepreneurship in new engineering education based on discipline competitions[J]. Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education, 2026, 17(1): 123-133. 

[3] Zhao chunyu, Wu Yingce, Wei Zhiyuan, et al. The situation, problems and governance of the academic competitions in universities--data analysis based on 2012-2016 undergraduate academic competition evaluation[J]. China Higher Education Research, 2018, (02): 69-74.

[4] Shu Xia, Qin Yongqiang, Wang Yan, et al. Telling heat-treatment stories compellingly and answering heat-treatment questions correctly-on guiding role of instructors in “material heat treatment innovation and creativity competition”[J]. Heat Treatment of Metals, 2025, 50(6): 320-323. 

[5] Du Yangyang, Du Caifeng, Wang Zhen, et al. Research on the training model of applied innovation talents under the background of engineering education certification: based on the analysis of college student competition Activities[J]. Journal of Science and Education, 2024, (4): 55-58. 

[6] Wu Mingjian. Research on academic competitions and the cultivation of comprehensive competence of university students(in Chinese)[J]. Higher Education Journal, 2025, 11(S2): 159-162.

[7] Zhang Guoqing. The effect of discipline competition on the cultivating college students’ comprehensive quality[J].Journal of Hubei Adult Education Institute, 2024, 30(2): 35-39.