Abstract: Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the ideological and political work in colleges and universities has been attached great importance by the state, especially after the "Vocational Ability Standards for College and University Counselors (Interim)" issued by the Ministry of Education in 2014. The research on vocational ability of college and university counselors has gradually become one of the academic focuses. Looking back on the historical process of college and university counselors' vocational ability research and restoring reality can better take care of the future. By combing through the current research on the vocational ability of college and university counselors, it is found that there are some trends such as insufficient heterogeneity of research objects, insufficient comprehensiveness of research methods and insufficient substantive research content. Future research should be oriented towards comprehensive research on related issues, pay attention to the difference analysis of the subject and object of the research object, and strengthen the exploration of the intrinsic essence of the research content.