It's my great honor to present you the 7th International Conference on Social Science and Higher Education (ICSSHE) proceedings.

The conference was co-organized by Xiamen University Tan Kah Kee College, Sanya University and Hainan University, and ETDIS provided technical support. However, due to various limitations caused by COVID-19, the conference was held in online mode.

As is known, the vaccine for COVID-19 has been successfully developed, and people have been widely vaccinated. However, due to the heredity and variation of the virus, the global pandemic hasn't been effectively controlled. New patients appear from time to time. Meanwhile, the government still sticks to pandemic prevention and control measures, including maintaining social distance, wearing masks, and the nucleic acid test. These measures are necessary for international travel. The impacts of pandemic won't be terminated in the short term. The network technology has satisfied the need for online meetings, which can realize face-to-face communication and stop the spreading of the pandemic. Even though the time zone varies, the video recording pattern could help realize the sharing and communication of conference results. It has been widespread to hold academic conferences online in the context of combating the pandemic.

ICSSHE started in 2015. And from 2015 to 2018, it was held in Sanya, China. In 2019, it was held in Xiamen, China. In 2020, it was held in online mode. The participants have highly praised it for its professional organization, widespread communication and targeted academic focuses. The continuous development and progress have made it one of the renowned academic activities in social science and higher education, which has attracted many experts and scholars. At the same time as sharing excellent academic achievements, the participants have broadened the theoretical horizon and established extensive international cooperation. Therefore, it's important to develop and integrate social science and higher education and make a better transformation from theoretical research to practical application.

We would like to thank our outstanding Keynote Speakers: Prof. Xiaonan Xiao, from Xiamen University Tan Kah Kee College; Prof. Syh-Jong Jang from Center for General Education, Asia University; Prof. Syed Abdul Rehman Khan, from Brasi School of Supply Chain Management, USA and Prof. Xiaohui Zou, from Sino-American Searle Research Center for sharing their deep insights on future challenges and trends in social science and higher education.

The conference received more than 300 submissions (full text and abstract) from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Chinese mainland. After single-blind peer review, 136 papers were accepted. And authors were invited to attend the conference to deliver oral and poster presentations. There were over 80 authors and a number of listeners participating in the virtual conference. Despite the online model, we still had heated discussions and fruitful sharing.

In the end, I'd like to thank those who spared efforts for the conference, including committees, reviewers, volunteers and authors. It was your efforts that led to the conference's success. I look forward to meeting all of you at the 8th ICSSHE.

ICSSHE-21 Conference Committee