Strengthening school-enterprise development is currently a major theme in the development of higher vocational education. The results of our survey study show that school-enterprise cooperation in Chinese higher vocational education is currently characterized by disparities in the interests of different entities, low quality of cooperation, and inadequate extent of cooperation. However, on the level of willingness, both schools and enterprises identify strongly with vocational education school-enterprise cooperation, and are filled with hope for the future of school-enterprise cooperation. The need to improve management systems, strengthen the role of industry organizations, perfect legal systems, strengthen schools' market consciousness and other systems and factors are the primary causes for the disparity between the vision of school-enterprise cooperation and the reality. The options for new developmental paths for school-enterprise cooperation in vocational education include establishing enterprise-oriented ideas for school administration, firmly placing industry organizations in the leading position, incentivizing enterprise participation in vocational education, strengthening the construction of production internship and practical training bases, and encouraging pioneering local trial efforts.