Abstract: As one of the six key competencies for Chinese college students, how to define and assess learning to learn competency caught a wide attention from researchers and educators. The learning to learn competency was initiated to meet the demands of and the challenges from an information-knowledge-based economy and a global quality education. With a characteristic of subjectivity, continuity and integrity, learning to learn competency is crucial to build a self-improvement and life-long learning society. Although remarkable accomplishments were achieved in the assessment of the learning to learn competency by researchers and educators in the United Kingdom, Finland and other European nations, it is imperative for Chinese researchers and educators to develop an assessment system for the learning to learn competency which can be applied to diverse groups locally and globally.

Key words: key competence, systematic view, integrated perspective