The CPC’s (Communist Party of China) vision for university education is a “liberation-oriented” paradigm fundamentally guided by Marxist theory, which constitutes its most distinctive feature. The academic pursuits of the senior educators of the People’s Republic of China provide the most authentic and characteristic material for studying the CPC’s vision for university education. The century-long achievements and journey of the CPC in establishing and running universities are underpinned by the responses and practices of these senior educators to the question of “what a university should be.” Statistically, the birth years of these senior educators can be grouped into approximately 20-year generational intervals. The three generations delineated by this division align with the Party’s phased historical tasks and the Marxist stages of human emancipation. This alignment resulted in a “nation-liberation-oriented” university ideal during the New Democratic Revolution period (1stgeneration), and a “productive forces-liberation-oriented” ideal during the period of the Socialist Revolution and Construction (2nd generation) and the New Era of Reform, Opening Up, and Socialist Modernization (3rdgeneration). The “productive forces-liberation-oriented” ideal was advanced through the successive efforts of two generations. The second generation, operating on the understanding that cultured workers with socialist consciousness are productive forces, sought to enhance workers’ cultural levels to liberate productive forces. The third generation, focusing on the principle that science and technology constitute the primary productive force, aimed to liberate productive forces through the development of science and technology. The academic pursuits of these three generations of educators thus demonstrate a transition from national liberation and people’s liberation to the development of productive forces. In the New Era of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, the fundamental task of fostering virtue and nurturing well-rounded individuals, the development orientation of the “Four Services” in higher education, and the fundamental policy of promoting moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor education collectively chart the course for a future generation of educators in China, pointing towards a “human-emancipation-oriented” ideal for the university.