Objective To establish educational milestones for nursing students at different educational stages and compare their distinctions and interrelationships.Methods Methodologies including literature review,role analysis,brainstorming,and the Delphi expert consultation method were used to determine the competency level classification framework and the target competency levels for different categories of students,thereby to formulate the educational milestones.Results A competency classification framework comprising 7 levels was developed.This culminated in an educational milestone system for nursing students,which includes 7 first-level competency indicators,17 second-level competency indicators,61 third-level indicators,and their correspondig target proficiency levels.Conclusion The milestone system can delineate the training objectives for various core competency dimensions among different student categories and illustrate their distinctions and connections.This system is conducive to enhancing the specificity,differentiation,and systematicity of nursing education.