On April 21, 2021, Guangzhou Daily Data & Digit Institute (GDI Think Tank) released the list of "GDI Top 1,000 Vocational Colleges (2021)", which evaluates 1,451 domestic vocational colleges. Shenzhen Polytechnic ranked first again with a composite index of 100 points, which was the fifth time that Shenzhen Polytechnic topped the list.

This is the fifth year that Guangzhou Daily has published this series of lists. Based on the composite index consisting of four first-class indices, namely the workplace competitiveness index, education competitiveness index, brand competitiveness index and secondary evaluation index, 1,451 vocational colleges in China were evaluated, and the list of "GDI Top 1,000 Vocational Colleges (2021)" and its five sub-lists were released. The five sub-lists included the “GDI Top 300 Public Vocational Colleges (2021)”, “GDI Top 100 Private Vocational Colleges (2021)”, “GDI Top 100 Vocational Colleges in Workplace Competitiveness Index (2021)”, “GDI Top 100 Vocational Colleges in Education Competitiveness Index (2021)”, and “GDI Top 100 Vocational Colleges in Brand Competitiveness Index (2021)”. Among the 1,451 vocational colleges, there were 1,114 public colleges, 334 private colleges and three Chinese-foreign cooperative colleges. Colleges from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan were not included in the lists.

The lists show that Shenzhen Polytechnic ranked first with its composite index reaching 100 points. Shenzhen Polytechnic ranked first in four evaluation indices, namely the workplace competitiveness index, education competitiveness index, brand competitiveness index and secondary evaluation index. The school-running level and comprehensive strength of the college have been widely recognized. Jinhua Polytechnic (with the composite index of 88.87) ranked second, which was closely followed by Guangdong Industry Polytechnic (87.77), Chongqing College of Electronic Engineering (87.54) and Wuxi Institute of Technology (87.19).