Generative AI (GenAI) has become popular with many university students since late 2022 and is incorporated in their daily life. To use GenAI tools effectively and equitably, and also to meet industry expectations, students should be supported to develop GenAI literacy skills during their time at university. Even though some universities have provided AI literacy training courses to students, the courses are not yet widely available to students across the higher education sector. Besides, there has been a shortage of GenAI literacy courses in particular. And more importantly, it is unclear what knowledge and skills that need to be included relating to GenAI literacy, from the student perspective. Building a strong understanding of student perceptions in this area is critical, because it will help enhance appropriateness and content relevance and promote student engagement. Adopting the four-dimensional AI literacy framework as the theoretical foundation, this paper aims to address the gaps. It explores the perceptions of university students on GenAI literacy in the UK and Hong Kong contexts. Survey data from 234 students were collected and analyzed using the descriptive analysis and Kruskal–Wallis test. The results show that factors such as country of studies and prior learning about AI greatly impacted GenAI literacy. However, factors such as age and educational level do not have a significant effect. Built upon the findings and the theoretical foundation, this paper proposes a new GenAI literacy framework. This framework is a revised version of the four-dimensional AI literacy framework and proposes the essential GenAI knowledge and skills for university students. The new framework also acknowledges the impact of the macro, meso, and micro factors on student GenAI literacy development. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s).

Assistive technology (AT) professionals are in pressing need with nowadays growing aged/disabled population, so as well-designed higher education programs in this field. This study designed and implemented a case-based active learning approach within an undergraduate course related to AT in Hong Kong, and assessed its impact on enhancing student engagement over two academic years. A total of twelve multimedia patient case dossiers on six major physical disabilities were created. Two cohorts of students enrolled in course “Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology” were instructed to utilize the case dossiers to facilitate their learning, understanding, and application of ATs for aged/disabled individuals. The Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire was employed to evaluate the student feedback on their learning experience, engagement, and learning approaches (i.e., Deep Approach, DA; and Surface Approach, SA) before and after the course. Upon completing the course, students’ DA scores significantly increased from 29.4 ± 6.9 to 31.4 ± 8.9 (p = 0.013). Additionally, significantly moderate positive correlations were found between the DA-SA value and students’ individual written report grades (p = 0.004) and overall grades (p = 0.048). In contrast, a significantly moderate negative correlation was identified between students’ individual report grades and SA scores (p = 0.019). These findings support the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing case-based active learning in higher education within the field of AT, supporting future large-scale implementation and optimization of such case-based active learning and teaching strategy in the AT field. Copyright © 2025 Informa UK limited, trading as Taylor & Francis group.

Hong Kong (HK) has been frequently studied in higher education (HE) policy research, but almost none shed light on policies related to the university student hostels. This study is unique as it focuses on university residential education in HK, which has a history of adopting the Oxbridge residential model, but in an Asian context. By tracing the policy development of university student hostels from 1980 to 2020 (a 40-year period), several themes were observed according to the year, ranging from financing hostel construction, defining the purpose of student housing, balancing the ratio of local and non-local students, to promoting internationalization in a localized context in recent years. Compared with the student housing development trend in the UK, the author deduces that the government’s decision to either offer public student hostels or outsource to the private sector will have a considerable impact on the educational role of student hostels. This study emphasizes that residential education must be intentional and suggests that universities should emphasize it as an essential part of higher education. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s) .

The pursuit of equitable education is key to a government’s regulation and allocation of life-chances, which enables social integration. Yet, evidence of the diminishing returns of degrees and of the “skills mismatch” between higher education training and labour market requirements casts doubts on the role of higher educational institutions in facilitating social mobility. This paper draws upon the findings of 40 qualitative interviews with young people conducted in 2018 in Hong Kong to shed light on the micro-level processes in which higher education training is translated into graduate employment outcomes. Findings comparing two sets of higher education graduates’ interview narratives are presented. Assumptions of the logic of human capital theory are questioned from the “positional” and the “processual” perspectives on graduate employability. The discussion unpacks the meanings of “skills mismatch” and “graduate employability,” and foregrounds the assumptions of the differential values assigned to skills and knowledges of different kinds in the local higher education system. With the insights drawn, this paper concludes with a reflection on the relevance of higher education to our understanding of social mobility and social integration in post-Covid-19 Hong Kong. Copyright © 2024 China Perspectives is the property of French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC).

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global workforce, including higher-education professionals, experienced substantial changes in their working conditions. Responding to the crisis, universities swiftly adapted their operational modes, thus inevitably impacting the work–life balance (WLB) of their staff. This study examines the WLB factors and their outcomes for higher-education staff, among both teaching and non-teaching staff, in Hong Kong and Thailand, during the initial stages of the pandemic through the lens of the job demands and resources model (JD-R model). The results of 1800 questionnaires completed by respondents from government-funded universities in both locations revealed a significant difference in the WLB between the two cases, with the Hong Kong respondents reporting lower levels of WLB compared with their Thai counterparts. The Hong Kong teaching staff exhibited a higher utilization of family-friendly policies (FFPs), whereas the non-teaching staff reported significantly lower levels of both policy utilization and overall WLB. The results also revealed significant differences in terms of how work, family, and personal-resource and demand factors were correlated to the WLB outcomes. This study advocates for tailored adjustments in university policies, basing the policies on the specific staff category and emphasizing the need for targeted support. In the Hong Kong context, attention should be directed toward enhancing WLB and FFP utilization among non-teaching staff. In contrast, in Thailand, a focus on refining the policies to better support the WLB of teaching staff is recommended. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Learning Management Systems (LMSs) are underutilized in universities despite them being standard components of higher education. Given this, there is a need to gather the perspectives of students and teachers to examine how these key end-users engage with LMS and utilize its various features and functions. Such an endeavor could aid in addressing the barriers and in promoting the use of LMSs in online teaching and learning. As studies about LMS use with both teacher and student samples are limited, we simultaneously gathered both students’ and teachers’ perceptions of Moodle from all academic faculties at a public university in Hong Kong. Structured qualitative interviews were conducted with eighty-two participants (41 teachers, 41 students) via Zoom. Results suggest that Moodle, while previously viewed as merely a repository of course materials, transitioned from being a supplementary tool to a key information dissemination tool during the pandemic. Despite the availability of collaboration tools, majority of interactions still occur in alternative communication channels. Findings point to students’ and teachers’ need for familiarity, training, and a visually and functionally improved interface to enhance their experience in the LMS. We also found how content and pedagogy influenced how LMS was integrated into teaching, with frequency and manner of LMS use varying between faculties and departments. Given this, tailor-made information and support for each department are needed to maximize LMS use in classes. We suggest the conduct of dialogues involving multiple stakeholders (i.e., teachers, students, administrators, and technical support staff) so that higher education institutions can share best practices on how to improve LMS utilization to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in universities. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s).

This study aims to investigate whether the flexible-learning approach may or may not foster student engagement in learning music history at the tertiary level. This approach provides students with a certain degree of autonomy in terms of deciding what to learn and how that learning should be assessed. Hence, it is highly learner-centred and deemed effective in cultivating students’ learning interests. The flexible-learning approach has received global attention in recent years, particularly in Europe, where both policymakers and teachers in higher education have borrowed it for the purposes of curriculum planning and course design. To determine the impact of the flexible-learning approach on music history education, this study employed a retrospective post-pre survey in order to measure students’ learning engagement. The results demonstrate that a flexible-learning approach can effectively enhance students’ motivation in learning, implying that a single music history course does not need to stick to the traditional linear design, but should provide multiple trajectories for students to learn according to their interests and abilities. Copyright © 2023 The Education University of Hong Kong.

This study aims to develop a self-report inventory to measure University students’ perception of their creative thinking skills. Creative thinking is a critical learning outcome in higher education and one of the essential 21st Century Competency. The data were collected from 253 students of a university in Hong Kong. A structural equation model was applied to confirm the construct validity of the instrument. The result shows that the key characteristics of creative thinking skills are empirically constructed by creative character, originality, sensitivity, synthesizing and resistance to premature closure. The five characteristics of creative thinking can be considered as learning processes or outcomes to inform the design of instructional events and learning activities to nurture students’ creative thinking skills. Copyright © 2023 by the authors.

Technostress is a phenomenon in which rapid technological advancement affects teachers’ psychological well-being. It is an emerging concern in English language education, which may be exacerbated by the advent of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT. This study explores the factors that influence technostress among English language teachers using GenAI tools and strategies that can alleviate it. Based on the analysis of qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 16 instructors at higher education institutions in Hong Kong, the study identifies the rapid advancement of AI technology, inadequate training and lack of experience as contributors to technostress. It also names mitigating strategies including targeted professional development, online engagement and gradual integration. These techniques can foster Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) and reduce the challenges of incorporating GenAI into English teaching. The findings align with existing literature on the impact of technostress and the role of TPACK. The practical implications include the need for comprehensive training, supportive communities and a balanced approach to AI integration. This investigation also expands the theoretical understanding of technostress in English language teaching and the use of GenAI tools, providing empirical support for existing frameworks. It also suggests directions for future research, which could investigate teacher well-being, effective AI integration and the impact of TPACK. Copyright © 2024 Educational Technology & Society.

During COVID-19, universities are reconfiguring learning environments and increasing flexibility in course offerings. Teachers have found synchronous hybrid teaching challenging with many students preferring online to in-person classroom attendance. Understanding students’ decision-making as to where, when and how they choose to learn will be critical in informing the design of learning spaces and courses. This survey-based study of 369 undergraduates across disciplines explored the relationships between students’ backgrounds and psychological factors (self-efficacy for online learning, conceptions of learning, perceptions of previous online course experiences) and student choices of learning spaces for synchronous online learning. While pre-pandemic studies in Western contexts identified non-traditional student characteristics as major factors associated with students’ choices of learning spaces (i.e., learning online at home), this Hong Kong study found significant associations between undergraduates’ choices, their origin and the disciplines. Logistic regression indicated those who preferred stimulating education and cooperative learning or perceived their previous online course experiences as having clearer goals had greater odds of attending classes synchronously online on campus from locations different from the scheduled teaching spaces. Qualitative analysis suggests personality, self-regulation and the university’s social and organisational structures as factors to consider in future studies of student choices of learning spaces. Implications for practice or policy: * Higher education providers may need to diversify course designs to cater to undergraduates’ different hybrid learning preferences and expectations in the post-pandemic return to campus. * The first step for online course teachers is to help their students to build a higher level of self-efficacy for online learning. * Course teachers can motivate students to take courses online by clarifying their