As a key resource in the construction of an educational powerhouse, humanities play a crucial role in building strong ideological and political leadership, talent competitiveness, technological support, livelihood security, social synergy, and international influence. However, in recent years, some top universities at home and abroad have begun to cancel some cultural and historical courses, revoke some humanities and social science majors, and reduce the proportion of humanities admissions, posing new challenges to humanities disciplines. So, what is the underlying logic behind the difficulties encountered by humanities disciplines, and where is the path to transformation for university liberal arts education? This is a question worthy of serious consideration. From the perspective of the challenges faced by liberal arts in universities, the biggest danger of liberal arts in today's universities is that they are increasingly detached from the needs of social development, leading to structural, value based, and methodological dilemmas. The structural dilemma is mainly reflected in the lack of close connection between liberal arts education and the work world. The traditional layout of liberal arts majors overly emphasizes disciplinary logic and neglects social demand logic. Deviation from the needs of the workplace is the fundamental reason for the revocation of some liberal arts majors and the sharp decline in enrollment quotas in universities. According to statistics, as many as 2629 liberal arts majors were approved for revocation by the Ministry of Education from 2014 to 2023. The poor adaptability between the cultivation of liberal arts talents in universities and the needs of economic and social development is also reflected in the fact that the curriculum system of liberal arts majors cannot be well matched with industry demands, practical teaching deviates from vocational skill standards, and some liberal arts majors in universities are significantly lagging behind in emerging fields such as digital economy and green low-carbon. There is insufficient training for students in interdisciplinary skills such as artificial intelligence and big data analysis. In addition, the strategic planning of some universities is not friendly to humanities, which has also led to structural difficulties, such as some comprehensive universities diluting the advantages of humanities when adding engineering majors; Some research-oriented universities prioritize scientific research over teaching, and the cultivation of undergraduate talents in humanities is marginalized; When some liberal arts colleges turn to science and engineering, they weaken the original characteristics of liberal arts. The dilemma of humanities lies in the simplification, dwarfism, and weakening of the pursuit of humanities values. One is the simplification of academic value. The production of liberal arts knowledge in universities is often limited to the interpretation of classical theories, lacking original breakthroughs, and difficult to adapt to the knowledge-based service demands put forward by society. Secondly, some liberal arts education paradigms adhere to the "scholastic philosophy" model, overly rely on theoretical lineage inheritance, pursue knowledge acquisition quantity unilaterally, neglect the cultivation of cross-border integration ability, and have a certain tendency towards dwarfism, resulting in incomplete core competencies of talents. At the same time, the overly detailed division of majors makes it difficult for students to master. The third is the weakening of social value. Some liberal arts majors in universities tend to impart knowledge in a more common sense manner, with academic achievements mostly staying at the level of "explaining phenomena" and insufficient deep intervention in society. There are not many policy proposals that can be transformed into serving national strategies and local development; Or blindly pursuing short-term goals of "transforming into economic benefits" leads to the marginalization of basic research in humanities and social sciences due to lagging economic benefits, lacking in-depth exploration of the human spiritual world, and failing to fully reflect the core values of humanities in cultural inheritance and innovation. The methodological dilemma has been an inherent problem in the development of humanities for a long time, which to some extent restricts the value manifestation of humanities. One is to fall into the worship of facts. Some humanities studies excessively pursue a research orientation dominated by instrumental rationality, neglecting value rationality and speculative rationality, resulting in research objects deviating from the humanistic core, focusing more on cultural derivatives such as personal feelings, inner experiences, and ethical norms, and lacking profound exploration of spiritual values. Secondly, the methods are outdated. Humanities research heavily relies on traditional methods such as literature review, conceptual analysis, and comparative research, with low acceptance of new methods such as quantitative research and big data analysis. This leads to a lack of empirical support and dynamic perspectives in academic research, high repeatability of results, insufficient alignment with social needs, and weak application and transformation capabilities. Thirdly, scientific research presents a disorderly competition of multiple paradigms, and research results often affect their credibility due to the inability to be repeatedly verified. The external dilemma of liberal arts education in universities stems from misinterpretation of technology, pursuit of performance, and the impact of artificial intelligence. For a long time, "technology" has been narrowly understood as a discipline of science, engineering, agriculture, and medicine, directly leading to a tilt in resource allocation towards science and engineering, and a tendency for humanities to be marginalized in disciplinary construction, research investment, talent cultivation, and other aspects. In fact, as a "holistic knowledge", humanities and social sciences can be included in the scope of "technology", and they play an irreplaceable role in social governance innovation, artificial intelligence development, interdisciplinary collaborative research, and other fields. Under the overall promotion of the integrated development strategy of education, technology and talent, the knowledge production value of humanities and their role in the national innovation system urgently need to be valued by all parties. Currently, the pursuit of performance is prevalent in universities and has a significant impact on humanities. On the one hand, resource allocation is influenced by performance pursuit, and university evaluation overly relies on "five only" indicators such as the number of papers and project funding. The "Five Unifications" evaluation system ignores the individuality, regionalism, and cultural characteristics of humanities and social sciences, resulting in a relative disadvantage for humanities in resource allocation. On the other hand, some universities have a phenomenon of emphasizing scientific research over teaching, and natural sciences over humanities and social sciences, which makes humanities, which cannot directly create material value, considered "useless" and squeezes the living space of humanities education. The disruptive innovation of artificial intelligence technology is profoundly changing the global demand for talent, but traditional liberal arts education has not yet adapted to this change. one side, AI、 New technologies such as big data are driving the intelligent and digital development of society. In order to comply with this development direction, universities have begun to cut some majors and courses, with humanities being the first to be affected. On the other hand, digital transformation has led to a shift in labor market demand, with an increase in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) positions and a decrease in positions related to humanities and social sciences majors. This trend has forced universities to adjust their disciplinary and professional structures, resulting in a situation where "expansion of technical talents" and "contraction of liberal arts education" coexist. The transformation path of liberal arts: The traditional expansion model of liberal arts is no longer suitable for the needs of the times. We should achieve transformation by strengthening the connotation of disciplines, optimizing mechanisms, and promoting organized scientific research, in order to enhance its core functions such as talent cultivation, scientific research innovation, social services, and cultural inheritance, and support the construction of an educational powerhouse. Optimize and adjust disciplines and majors to resolve structural difficulties. The reform of liberal arts education needs to take the optimization of disciplines and majors as a breakthrough point, adhere to the three directions of demand driven, cross innovation, and digital empowerment, and achieve the transformation of liberal arts education from "inheritance" to "innovation" by dynamically adjusting the layout of disciplines and majors, deepening the integration of arts and sciences, and strengthening digital transformation. One is demand-oriented and dynamic optimization. Strengthen basic research and the construction of China's independent knowledge system, increase the research depth of disciplines such as philosophy, economics, and law, and enhance the contribution of humanities and social sciences in national strategic decision-making, cultural innovation, and other fields. Dynamically optimize the layout of liberal arts majors based on the needs of industrial transformation and upgrading, as well as emerging industry trends such as artificial intelligence and green economy, and implement warning or exit mechanisms for majors with low adaptability. The second is cross integration and innovative growth. Make good use of the catalyst of interdisciplinary integration, adjust and upgrade the existing disciplinary and professional system, and strengthen the construction of new liberal arts. The construction of new liberal arts focuses on cultivating emerging interdisciplinary fields such as "digital humanities," "AI ethics," and "low-carbon policies," providing students with interdisciplinary learning experiences, encouraging liberal arts students to take STEM courses, and cultivating compound innovation abilities. The third is digital empowerment and intelligent regulation. Build an intelligent monitoring system for liberal arts education, analyze the employment market and technological trends in real time, and dynamically adjust professional settings and course content. Innovate institutional mechanisms to resolve value dilemmas. Through institutional optimization, resource integration, and value reshaping, promote the comprehensive improvement of academic, educational, and social influence in the humanities. One is to further strengthen the consensus on the values of humanities. To distinguish between short-term and long-term value, a long-term assessment should be implemented for basic research in humanities such as literature, history, and philosophy, and a special fund for cultural inheritance should be established to avoid marginalization due to its lagging economic benefits. Further clarify the public attributes of humanities, strengthen the core role of humanities in spiritual shaping and cultural innovation through policies, regulations, and public forums, and incorporate it into the national soft power evaluation system. The second is to construct an integrated education system. Improve the implementation mechanism of moral education, coordinate value guidance and practical experience, build a collaborative education system of "in class, out of class, on campus and off campus", strengthen the integration of industry and education and social practice education. Further strengthen the cultivation of cross-border integration capabilities, break down disciplinary and professional barriers, and achieve the transformation from "discipline based education" to "interdisciplinary and integrated education". Balance utilitarianism and humanism, embed general education into employment oriented courses, and establish a path of integrated training between general and vocational education. The third is to optimize the mechanism for transforming achievements. Building liberal arts laboratories and think tank platforms, promoting the transformation of academic achievements into policy recommendations, and providing high-quality knowledge services for national decision-making. Integrate resources from universities, governments, enterprises, etc., build a shared research platform, accurately match social needs, and enhance the social influence of humanities. Expand the channels for disseminating achievements, use various methods such as academic journals, international conferences, and public media to disseminate humanities achievements, and enhance social recognition. Resolve methodological dilemmas through organized scientific research. One is to strengthen organized scientific research. Adhere to a problem oriented approach, organize cross institutional collaborative research on major issues such as national governance and global governance, and contribute wisdom and solutions to national governance and global governance. The second is to innovate the research methodology system. Integrate traditional thinking with new technological methods such as artificial intelligence and big data, optimize research paradigms, and enhance the scientific nature of achievements. Upgrade traditional research methods and develop AI assisted reasoning systems, such as a big data based concept evolution simulator. Innovative verification mechanisms, pilot virtual repeated experiments, such as reconstructing historical social contexts through digital twin technology. Develop a "Guidelines for Selecting Methods in Humanities and Social Sciences" and establish an evaluation model for "research problem method matching"; Design differentiated quality evaluation criteria for different types of research. The third is to innovate the organizational form of scientific research. Create a "three synergy" research network: vertical synergy, which refers to the linkage between national think tanks, organized research units in universities, and grassroots observation points; Horizontal collaboration, namely joint project proposal of humanities laboratory+engineering technology center+humanities practice base; Space time collaboration refers to the use of digital twin technology to conduct cross civilization comparative research. (Liao Xinshe) Author: Zhang Xiaohua, Zhou Guangli (postdoctoral fellow of School of Education, Renmin University of China; Dean of School of Education, Renmin University of China; Distinguished Professor of Changjiang Scholar, Ministry of Education)