University students are the core stakeholder in the university. Their participation in university governance is not only an important part of establishing and improving a modern university system with Chinese characteristics, but also an important direction for the connotation construction of universities in the new era. Statistical and Chisquare test were used to carry out empirical analysis, and the results showed that students with different political status, educational level and cadre experience have different degrees of subjective cognition, channels of participation and evaluation criteria of participation in university governance, indicating that the effect of current Chinese students' participation in university governance is not ideal. Based on theoretical review and realistic analysis, the optimization design is carried out from the four aspects of reshaping the concept of "student-oriented", optimizing the power structure of university governance, unblocking the expression channels, and improving the student participation system. The design can protect the enthusiasm, initiative, and effectiveness of students' participation in university governance, and promote the modernization of higher education governance system and governance capabilities.