E-learning has been proposed as a sustainable delivery method for higher education. During the COVID-19 pandemic, online/e-service-learning was widely adopted around the world as a replacement for face-to-face service learning, providing an opportunity to explore whether e-learning as a sustainable delivery method could be applied to service learning. The present study adopted a qualitative approach to investigate the e-service-learning experiences of Mainland Chinese students studying at a Hong Kong university with regard to their general perceptions about the e-service-learning projects, perceived learning gains, and factors associated with their learning gains. A total of 28 undergraduates who participated in e-service-learning in the 2020/21 academic year were recruited from different faculties of the university. Seven focus groups were established with the participants. The results showed that Mainland Chinese students generally had positive perceptions about their experiences in e-service-learning during the pandemic. They appreciated the convenient and effective online learning and service, although they needed contact that is more direct with service recipients to deepen their reflection. Students perceived that they had improved their problem-solving skills and subject knowledge; they also gained meaningful personal growth and positive emotions through e-service-learning. Facilitators of and barriers to students' effective learning were also identified. The findings provide important evidence for the effectiveness of e-service-learning from the perspective of Mainland Chinese students at Hong Kong universities and the potential of e-service-learning as a sustainable delivery method for service-learning programs in the post-pandemic era. Copyright ©2023 Mdpi.

This paper investigates mainland Chinese students? experiences of learning English as a second language (L2) in a multilingual university in Hong Kong, with particular attention to their negotiation of participation and identity. Drawing on a series of in-depth interviews with a group of mainland Chinese students, the study revealed that their participation in L2 practices appeared to be shaped by the contextual conditions in different communities within the university and mediated by their agentic responses to the contextual realities of these communities. While they gained fuller participation in L2-mediated activities in the local student community and the classroom community as a result of their appropriation of the associated language practices and their display of knowledge and competence in the related social practices, they struggled to gain access to L2 interactional opportunities in the community of exchange students, where their negotiation of positionalities was subject to the perceived unequal power relations between native and non-native speakers of the English. It is argued that their participation in L2-mediated activities in the university could be understood as a complex, dynamic, situated and co-constructed process of negotiating access, competence, membership, positionality, identities and discursive practices associated with different communities.
[Copyright of Research Papers in Education is the property of Routledge.]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the key factors affecting Mainland Chinese students pursuing a Master of Education degree in Hong Kong on their study abroad decision and return intentions. Design/methodology/approach: The current study employed a mixed-methods approach to investigate factors that affect Mainland Chinese students pursuing MEd degrees in Hong Kong. Participants were first invited to fill out a questionnaire. After collecting and analyzing the survey data, in-depth interviews with a selected group of students were carried out by the research team to obtain useful qualitative data to triangulate the survey findings. A purposeful and convenience sampling method, carried out through the personal network of the research team, was used to recruit MEd Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong to participate in the current study. Findings: The findings provided compelling evidence that Hong Kong was an attractive study destination to this particular group of MEd Chinese students. The findings also indicated that academic factors were more important than social, cultural and economic factors when it came to choosing their study destination. In contrast to previous studies, participants expressed a much stronger desire to return home upon graduation. The three most influential predictors of their decision to return were the lack of a Hong Kong teaching certificate (r=+0.36), the opportunity to contribute to their hometown (r=+0.31) and the inclination to be closer to family and friends (r=+0.20). Originality/value: While a number of studies have been carried out to study why Mainland Chinese students chose Hong Kong as their study destination to pursue their teacher training degree, none of these studies focused exclusively on fee-paying MEd Chinese students. Hong Kong is facing keen competition from both traditional host countries and emerging host countries to recruit students from Mainland China. It is therefore crucial to understand the needs of

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the international mobility of mainland students in special administrative regions of China and in places outside China.Design/methodology/approach - There have been studies using the framework of push–pull and reverse push–pull factors to explore the movement of mainland students to North America, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. This study follows up by exploring such research directions in Macau, which is another special administrative region of China. Different from previous studies, the sample of this study came specifically from 130 students enrolling in teacher education undergraduate programs in Macau.Findings - In this study, using data collected from questionnaires and interviews, the factors affecting mainland student teachers’ choice of Macau as a place for their undergraduate studies are examined. Other related issues such as the challenges these students face and their intentions after their graduation are also studied.Originality/value - The data collected for this study were primary and original, drawing specifically from students enrolling teacher education programs. Following the various studies on the global movement of mainland students, this study aimed at understanding mainland students’ mobility pattern in one of China’s special administration regions, Macau. In this regard, cultural identity and cultural factors were considered on top of other factors. Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing Limited.

Drawing on self-based L2 motivation theories, the present study explored changes in the English learning motivation of eight Mainland Chinese undergraduates after their arrival at a Hong Kong university, where they took most of their courses in English. The participants were surveyed and interviewed retrospectively about their English learning experiences both in Mainland China and Hong Kong. After their relocation to Hong Kong, most participants reported heightened motivation. While their motivation generally remained stable at a high level, there were some fluctuations. The motivational enhancement may be influenced by the continuous interaction between the participants’ perceptions of different contexts of Hong Kong and their shifting actual and ideal L2 selves. The motivational fluctuations appeared to be affected by an interplay between the participants’ L2 selves and specific L2-related learning experiences such as preparation for English proficiency tests. As these activities came to an end, the participants’ motivation returned to its original state. Implications are offered to support the transitions of English as a foreign language learners to an environment where English is used as the medium of instruction.
[Copyright of System is the property of Pergamon Press. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2018.05.011]

Over the past few decades, Mainland China has witnessed a massive outflow of students to higher education institutions in Hong Kong. In the context of an up-surge in Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong, this research aims to explore (1) why Mainland Chinese students choose to study in Hong Kong over other higher education systems, (2) perceptions about the advantages and disadvantages of studying in Hong Kong, and (3) challenges in the process of acculturation from their homeland to Hong Kong. Five key themes are identified: education, finance, learning culture, language, and discrimination/labelling. While Mainland Chinese students often struggle to blend into the new environment, most gradually become accustomed to the local way of life. What remains a challenge is (perceived) discrimination following political tensions over the 'one China, two systems' framework. This paper identifies the expectations and dissatisfactions of the participants with regard to studying in Hong Kong, ultimately offering higher-education administrators an insight into how to better cater for the expanding share of Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong's universities. This research is significant because it extends the literature by examining acculturation and cultural adaptation issues in an increasingly globalized context.
[Copyright of Higher Education is the property of Springer Science & Business Media]

The language-related challenges affecting international university students' adaptation to a new host environment have been extensively explored in English-speaking countries. However, few studies have been performed in non English-speaking countries or regions, and even fewer have investigated these challenges from the perspective of learner autonomy. Adopting a process-oriented approach, the present qualitative, multiple case study examines how nine first-year mainland Chinese university students developed their autonomy in adapting to English-medium-instruction (EMI) in a university in Hong Kong, a multilingual context. The findings reveal that, via a three-stage process, the participants developed autonomy by changing their strategies for both learning and using English during their first year of study. The participants' development of autonomy for learning and using English was also mediated by the local multilingual context. These findings help to deepen our understanding of the dynamics and complexity of students' long-term autonomy development in an era of increasing internationalization in higher education.
[Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd.]

In this paper, we report on an inquiry exploring the experiences of 10 mainland Chinese student teachers of English so as to understand why they came to Hong Kong for a teacher education programme. The study revealed that these students were largely attracted to teaching in Hong Kong because of its extrinsic benefits such as professional stability, the prestige associated with the English language teaching profession and the opportunities to acquire valued skills transferable to other professions including English competence. Facing challenges as non-local students, they were also uncertain of becoming teachers in the new context. As 'elite' Chinese students were often unwilling to become teachers, we found it strategic to attract a large number of talented non-local students to the teaching profession and retain them. We conclude the paper with recommendations for various stakeholders to support these non-local students' adaptation and development as committed and competent teachers in local schools.
[Copyright of Journal of Education for Teaching is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02607470902771037]