This paper explored teacher professional development (TPD) for online and blended learning (OBL) via microlearning in the higher education English language teaching context in Hong Kong in 2021 and 2022. OBL requires teachers to integrate technology. This study drew on quantitative survey data (N = 67) and interviews (N = 12) that took place after the participants were exposed to microlearning. The findings illuminated that microlearning was perceived as flexible and stress-free and allowed teachers to focus on relevant and immediate tasks using bite-sized learning segments to achieve digital growth. Such activities created favourable conditions to equip them with the skills necessary to teach effectively in the context of the “new normal”. Moreover, the study shed light on how previous TPD activities were often considered too general to improve teachers’ digital competence. It concluded with a call for more research on microlearning and TPD for OBL to help teachers gain pedagogical, theoretical and practical knowledge to enhance their teaching. Copyright © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Impactful innovations in higher education are increasingly dependent on concepts generated through global engagement and international collaborations. Internationalisation of higher education tends to grow in complexity when universities from different jurisdictions are driven by dissimilar governance approaches and developmental goals. Yet, this complexity enhances opportunities for creativity, innovations and collaborations at the same time. In this paper, we examine how world-class universities in Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong have worked to overcome incongruities and asymmetries inside the Greater Bay Area (GBA), a new and ambitious regional construct of China, by drawing on disparate legacies and capacities in internationalisation of research, education, and service in their jurisdictions. We explore the impact of international dynamics on the universities’ efforts to create a more coherent agenda with respect to international partnerships in the region. The study contributes to conceptualisation of world-class universities’ roles in shaping bridges and synergies regionally and globally, and infuses the rationales of internationalization in higher education with new perspectives. Copyright © 2022 Journal of Higher Education Policy And Leadership Studies.

Hong Kong went through a complete reform in its higher education curriculum, incorporating opportunities for interdisciplinary learning and holistic competency development. Almost eight years have passed since the reform, yet little is known about the current state of students' holistic competency development across different disciplines. Students' self-evaluation of their capacities in holistic competencies can provide us indirect evidence of student development of these competencies for quality assurance. This study does not only aim to explore how undergraduates in Hong Kong self-assessed their holistic competencies, but also to identify whether there were disciplinary differences. To do so, 2192 undergraduate students from six universities in Hong Kong were surveyed using the validated Students' Perception of Holistic Competencies Questionnaire. Analysis of the quantitative data revealed that students generally rated themselves strongest in Moral Values but weakest in Interpersonal and Leadership Competencies. However, no substantial mean difference across the different disciplines was evident in all six holistic competencies investigated. The overall results indicated that undergraduates in Hong Kong generally believe that they have a moderately high level of capability in holistic competencies. Copyright © 2022 Elsevier.

With the increasing interest in entrepreneurship education within engineering education, there are questions on what engineering entrepreneurship education should include. As engineering entrepreneurship education aims to foster entrepreneurial individuals who will contribute to knowledge-based societies and economic growth, student perspectives are crucial. This study assessed first and final year engineering students' perceptions on entrepreneurship education in a university in Hong Kong, identifying important competencies as learning outcomes and motivating and deterring factors for students to pursue entrepreneurship as a career. Findings offer implications for curriculum design and educational practices, particularly on formally offering entrepreneurship education in the engineering discipline, involving competencies development in educational practices and developing opportunities addressing students' factors of motivation and deterrence. Copyright © 2022 Routledge.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally shifted learning from the traditional classroom approach to online learning. As such, this study used a revision centre as a case study to develop the factors that contribute to the theoretical framework of online peer learning in the higher education sector due to COVID-19. This study also explores the integrated effects of online peer learning on students and investigates whether advanced information technology creates new opportunities or additional burdens for students in adopting online peer learning environments. Descriptive statistical analysis, factor analysis, and correlation analysis were conducted on survey data gathered from 204 sub-degree students in Hong Kong. The results addressed four main factors developed from 39 variables: enhancement of learning ability, the attitude toward learning, motivation for learning, and interpersonal relationship which were closely associated. The study findings provide strategies and constructive recommendations for educators to develop a new online learning pedagogy, construct sustainable online peer learning, and effectively manage students’ online learning to meet the needs for post-COVID online education. Copyright © 2022 Springer.

In Hong Kong, which transitioned from a colonial to post-colonial One Country-Two Systems structure, sustainability implementation rests on two institutional pillars: education, which drives the city’s knowledge-based economy, and family system. In light of the recent policy demands to strengthen higher education and family systems by capitalizing on the unique advantages of the post-colonial era, the purpose of this study was to: (1) describe and analyze sustainability values of the first-year university students; and (2) investigate roles of family and educational systems in the process of their formation. The mix-method study stressed the importance of discerning and analyzing sustainability value formation in order to create in-depth understanding of the curricular adjustments that align the sustainability mindset of Hong Kong students in the context of the One Country-Two Systems under the pressing demands of global economy. The study relied on the use of two systems theoretical frameworks employed within sustainability education (Sterling, 2003) and family (Bowen, 1957/1974) fields. Data sources included questionnaires of 4985 Hong Kong first-year university students; and 31 semi-structured interviews of Liberal Studies teachers. The quantitative findings showed that 85% of the students believed that their family influenced their environmental values; reported a significant negative coefficient (-0.044) between the two student cohorts in relation to family influence; and showed that family influence on students’ sustainability values differed by gender. The qualitative results revealed the overarching themes of Family Income, Role Modeling, and Shared Responsibility as three major descriptors of family influences on sustainability values of Hong Kong students. Copyright © 2022 Springer.

Autonomy has been considered both as a precondition and a crucial learning outcome of higher education. Recent research has been focusing on measuring university students’ autonomy or its development. However, whether and how students’ autonomy can be measured quantitatively is still debatable. Although autonomy is known as a changing process and varies among individuals, it is agreed that students’ learning behaviours are largely affected by their perceptions; very few studies, however, have examined students’ own perception of autonomy. This study, therefore, adopts a longitudinal qualitative approach to investigate the changes in students’ own perceptions of autonomy over five different times during their first-year study in a Hong Kong University, and examine the relationship between the perceptions and behaviours of their autonomy. Using in-depth semi-structured interviews with eight first-year students, the study found that although the participants held some common understanding of autonomy, they also demonstrated various interpretations of this concept. They also had a slightly different focus on different dimensions of autonomy, which were affected by their own individual experiences. An individualistic approach is therefore proposed to understand students’ development of autonomy. Copyright © 2022 Taylor & Francis.

This study, adopting the Foucauldian lenses of citizenship, investigates how a group of students understand the prevailing social discourses and how such understanding and perceptions influence students’ sense of citizenship and coping strategies. Drawing on in-depth individual interviews with 28 participants from six universities in Hong Kong, the findings suggest that multiple factors have impacts on the university students’ sense of citizenship, including the media as technologies to shape citizenship, the essentialized ideological differences as an apparatus of intervention to shape and act upon individuals, and the legitimacy and discordance of opinions among individuals within both physical and virtual communities. The participants were found to gradually develop an awareness of the discursive construction of the social. They were found to search for their sense of citizenship through (a) opting for one ideological stance and/or keeping silent to avoid being othered within the social discourses existing at the social, community, and family levels; (b) adopting different coping strategies when dealing with their confusion towards conflicting comments; or (c) developing news reading literacy and coming to the realization of the role media plays in discursively constructing new citizens and exercising influence over existing and potential members of communities. The implications of the findings for curriculum design and policy making to develop support measures to facilitate students’ positive learning and whole-person development are discussed. Copyright © 2022 Springer.

Internationalisation has become a worldwide trend in Higher Education in the rapidly changing globalised competitive market. Universities are pressurised to develop internationalised strategy to build legitimacy and reputation within the knowledge-based economy. An isomorphic tendency has been identified of universities mimicking successful models. Among a wide range of strategic tools, the organisational legitimacy theory allows universities to focus on exploiting their resources and capability to position idiosyncratically against competitors. This study applies Stensaker et al.'s legitimacy framework on cognitive, moral and pragmatic perspectives, to investigate how a university adopts an internationalisation strategy as one of the approaches to achieve the overall institutional objectives. Drawing on a case study of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), the paper explores how the university internationalises in a differentiated position to acquire legitimacy in specific local, regional and global contexts. PolyU strategically emphasises its pragmatic value to connect with its stakeholders in a globalised dimension. The finding broadly supports the notion of comprehensive internationalisation; that internationalisation strategy should be incorporated into other functional strategies to enhance a 'global' experience. The analysis of the strength and weaknesses of PolyU's internationalisation strategies illustrates the challenges non-western universities are facing. This finding, while preliminary, raises the significance of local elements in internationalisation strategies, under the influence of soft power and constraints of organisational capabilities. Copyright © 2022 Springer.

Making online education effective and engaging has been a policy priority in the higher education (HE) sector since the COVID-19 pandemic arose in 2020. Based on an online survey and qualitative interviews, we examine experiences of HE students and teachers in Hong Kong, and provide recommendations that can enable countries/economies to leverage on the good practices of online education to rejuvenate HE in the post-COVID era. We find a need for greater institutional support beyond its current availability. Students’ perception of online education is less optimistic than what such labeling as “digital natives” suggests. However, with time, online education is being viewed more positively. Teachers find their online education workload to be higher. More female teachers cite difficulties in balancing work and life, while older teachers report more technological difficulties. Since many respondents come from public affairs programs, which emphasize interaction in the classroom, the findings suggest that a rethinking of pedagogical strategies of public affairs education is required. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s).