**6. Conclusions**

SUSTech's journey in developing and implementing a robust general education system implies the importance of taking an institution-wide approach and adopting an innovationcentered perspective. By ensuring the integration of general education principles and goals across all aspects of the university, SUSTech creates a cohesive and interconnected educational pathway for students. The innovation-centered approach at SUSTech imparts a liberal sense to general education by empowering students to become self-directed thinkers with inquiring minds and the intellectual tools to think independently. By focusing on awakening students' self-awareness, interests, passions, and visions for the future, SUSTech cultivates students who are able to make personal decisions based on broad knowledge, well-reasoned ideas, and values.

This case study of SUSTech also demonstrates the importance of educational ideas of institutional leadership, organizational support, systematic design, concerted effort, and financial support in creating a successful general education system. While the specific pathway of SUSTech may not be easily duplicated in other universities, it can serve as a reference point, an inspiration, and a catalyst for fundamental and systemic reform and innovation in the broader higher education landscape. By sharing the implementation of general education at SUSTech, this case study makes an original contribution to the practice of general education, both among Chinese universities and globally. It serves as a stimulus for open discussions among researchers and practitioners in higher education and promotes the exploration of innovative approaches to general education that meet the evolving needs of students and society.

In conclusion, this case study of SUSTech's general education system demonstrates the importance of an institution-wide approach, an innovation-centered perspective, and the integration of broad-based and individualized learning. Lessons learned from the SUSTech experience contribute to the broader discourse on general education and can inspire universities to transform their educational practices and prepare students to become innovative, self-directed thinkers capable of meeting the challenges of the future.

**Author Contributions:** Writing—original draft, X.L. and Y.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This paper was funded by the International Joint Research Project of Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University (ICER201908) and the SUSTech Research Project of Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTECH2020C005).

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Ethical review and approval were waived for this study as we did not collect any information that could identify the participants during the data collection process. Therefore, according to the ethical review regulations, such research does not require ethical review.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Written informed consent has been obtained from the subjects involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data that support the findings of this study will be made available from the authors upon reasonable request.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
