<?xml version="1.1" encoding="utf-8"?>
<article xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://jats.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/1.1/xsd/JATS-journalpublishing1-mathml3.xsd" dtd-version="1.1" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">EIR</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title>Educational Innovation Research</journal-title></journal-title-group><issn>3029-1844</issn><eissn>3029-1852</eissn><publisher><publisher-name>Bio-Byword Scientific Publishing Pty. Ltd.</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.26689/EIR.v4i7.16060</article-id><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="heading"><subject>Article</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title>Exploration of the Upgrade Path for New Liberal Arts Disciplines in Industry-Specific Engineering Colleges—Taking the Business Administration Discipline of Energy-related Universities as An Example</title><url>https://artdesignp.com/journal/EIR/4/7/10.26689/EIR.v4i7.16060</url><author>GongZhang,XuanYu</author><pub-date pub-type="publication-year"><year>2026</year></pub-date><volume>4</volume><issue>7</issue><history><date date-type="pub"><published-time>2026-07-26</published-time></date></history><abstract>The new round of technological revolution and the green and digital transformation of the energy industry have raised new requirements for the cultivation of new liberal arts talents in specialized engineering colleges with industry characteristics. Currently, there are common practical problems in liberal arts majors of such colleges, such as the separation of arts and science, significant disciplinary barriers, disconnection between talent cultivation and industry demands, and fixed training models. Taking the business administration major of Southwest Petroleum University as an example, this paper clarifies the ability, knowledge and comprehensive quality requirements of the energy industry for &amp;ldquo;understanding energy, being good at management and being innovative&amp;rdquo; comprehensive new liberal arts talents, and systematically analyzes the existing problems and deep-seated causes of the construction of new liberal arts majors in specialized engineering colleges with industry characteristics. The research constructs a four-in-one construction concept of inheriting and innovating, cross-disciplinary arts and science, unified supply and demand, and collaborative dynamics. It builds a professional transformation and upgrading path from five dimensions: curriculum system, faculty team, teaching methods, practical teaching, and disciplinary platform, and designs a dynamic talent cultivation plan adapted to the development of the energy industry. It also builds a comprehensive guarantee system from six aspects: funds, faculty, platform, evaluation, system, and information technology. The pilot practice results show that this model effectively solves the problem of &amp;ldquo;two-faced&amp;rdquo; integration of arts and science, significantly improves students&amp;rsquo; practical innovation ability and industry job fit, and significantly increases the employment rate of graduates in the energy industry and the satisfaction of employers. The research forms a new liberal arts construction paradigm of &amp;ldquo;industry characteristics + cross-disciplinary arts and science&amp;rdquo;, enriches the theoretical system of new liberal arts construction in industry-related universities, and can provide replicable and promotable practical references for specialized engineering colleges with industry characteristics in the petroleum, geological, mining, and power industries to upgrade new liberal arts majors and cultivate comprehensive talents.</abstract><keywords>New liberal arts construction,Industry-oriented engineering colleges,Interdisciplinary integration of arts and engineering,Talent training model,Energy industry</keywords></article-meta></front><body/><back><ref-list><ref id="B1" content-type="article"><label>1</label><element-citation publication-type="journal"><p>[1] Fan LM, 2020, &amp;ldquo;New Liberal Arts&amp;rdquo;: The Demand of the Era and the Key Areas of Construction. China University Teaching, 2020(5): 4&amp;ndash;8.
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