Which educational environment is better for college students' social-emotional competency development, public or private? An investigation of 100 Chinese universities

Individuals' success or happiness is influenced by their noncognitive skills. Social-emotional competency (SEC) is the essential noncognitive factor for individual development in the 21st century. The different higher education environments would affect students' SEC development differently, but the difference in college students' SEC development is unclear between Chinese public and private universities. Based on the data through online questionnaires, this study conducted propensity score matching analysis on 120,344 student samples from 100 universities. The results show that, whether interference factors such as individual characteristics, family background, and academic performance are controlled or not, the progress level of private undergraduates' SEC is higher than that of public undergraduates. Private university educational environment is relatively more beneficial for undergraduates' social-emotional competency development. For improving talent cultivation quality, public universities are advised to learn from private universities' school-running experience and carry on systematic social-emotional learning programs. • Undergraduates in private universities exhibit a 1.32 times greater improvement in social-emotional competency (SEC) compared to their public university counterparts. • Private universities foster less competitive, more supportive environments for SEC development. • Gender, age, sleep quality, and family background significantly predict undergraduates' SEC development.