Actively carrying out mathematics academic quality evaluation is an inherent requirement to comply with the educational reform and development trend, and an important mission to cultivate the core competencies of mathematics and implement moral education, but the current academic quality evaluation has problems such as the restriction of the subject of evaluation, the solidification of the evaluation content and form, and the insufficiency of the subject’s ability to evaluate the academic quality. Accordingly, strategies are proposed to emphasize the diversification and specialization of evaluation subjects, non outcome evaluation methods, and the comprehensiveness and diversification of evaluation dimensions.

For college students, students with good key competencies can achieve high levels of academic performance, promote better personal adaptation to the future world of work and social life, build competitive advantages for personal career development, become active and responsible citizens, and enhance their own sense of well-being and physical and mental health. The application of positive psychology in education focuses on students’ mental health and motivation to learn. This study investigated the key competencies of college students and their benefits in positive education, and analyzed the correlation between the two. And the study designed teaching strategies to improve students’ learning in positive education.

The purpose of this study is to develop strategies for enhancing higher and postgraduate education in Kazakhstan, with a focus on improving graduate readiness for professional roles and building predictive models to analyze and assess doctoral graduation rates in technical fields for 2023–2025. This research emphasizes a flexible framework that integrates universal competencies into engineering programs, adaptable to various institutional and national contexts. Active learning methods, including project-based tasks, problem-solving exercises, internships, and lab work, are employed to cultivate practical skills aligned with real-world engineering demands. The study also highlights the need for comprehensive assessment systems that extend beyond theoretical testing, incorporating continuous feedback and curriculum adjustments to align with labor market needs and scientific developments. Results reveal key areas for higher education reform, as outlined in Kazakhstan’s State Program for Education and Science Development (2020–2025). These include implementing a competency-based approach, optimizing interdisciplinary and practice-oriented teaching methods, and enhancing the global competitiveness of Kazakhstani universities. Additionally, through time-series analysis of doctoral graduation data, a trend model was created, showing a steady increase in graduates, tested for anomalies and trend adequacy, making it reliable for forecasting graduate numbers. The scientific significance of this work lies in its contributions to models that improve graduate training, fostering high-quality education to enhance Kazakhstani universities’ global competitiveness. By integrating AI-driven strategies and emerging technologies, the research provides an adaptive educational model to equip students with essential professional and universal competencies, essential for navigating the evolving labor market and supporting sustainable development.

Facing the profound and complex changes in the era, higher education has been entrusted with the mission of cultivating talents capable of adapting to rapid development and achieving a high level of self-reliance and self-improvement. To meet this challenge, this article combines practical cases to explore the core competencies that innovative talents should possess in the new era, as well as the teaching design of structured discussions that help improve core competencies. By conducting a detailed analysis of the practice of structured discussions in “Basic English Reading II”, this article aims to provide beneficial theoretical guidance and practical experience for the cultivation of innovative talents.