Based on critical discursive analysis and empirical studies, this study sheds light on policy initiatives aimed at turning Hong Kong (HK) into a higher education hub. Its findings come from questionnaire surveys distributed to 1060 overseas students who studied in HK universities between 2019 and 2021. Three paradoxical issues are identified: the mismatch between policy orientation and students’ preferences, the segregation of international and local students in university life, and the dilemma of the city's positioning as a talent pool or stepping stone. The case of HK highlights the contrast between the discursive imaginaries and lived realities stemming from its projection as an education hub in non-Western societies. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This article analyses the study-abroad identity of Central Asian undergraduate students in a Hong Kong university. It draws on the narrative data to explore the intercultural tensions and challenges they faced in the higher education context, as well as the impact of their study-abroad experiences on their identity-making when integrating into the receiving society. Drawing on Herzfeld’s (2005) concept of cultural intimacy, this article explains the students’ limited participation in local Hong Kong communities and their strong connection to the small, diasporic Central Asian network. It also reveals the co-existence of post-Soviet national identities and a cohesive Central Asian identity in the participants’ identity-making processes. Copyright © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

We analyze the policies of China and Israel towards students from Hong Kong and East Jerusalem respectively. We demonstrate that they are treated as International students and subject to a form of ‘internationalization’ designed to consolidate national forms of identity and extend state control over ‘troublesome’ minorities within the nation state. This domestic adaptation of the structures designed to support internationalization within Universities, through which the state deploys higher education as a tool of ‘soft power’ to control parts of the nation, operates within a broader program of ‘internal colonization’ that is neither well developed in the literature nor explained by prominent typologies of internationalization. Copyright © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Increasingly, universities have been engaging in transnational higher education (TNE), and such activity provides students with an additional study option. While much is already known about the TNE activities of universities in larger countries, such as Australia and the United Kingdom, very little is known about universities from smaller countries, such as Ireland. This article examines an Irish university with international branch campuses in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Sri Lanka. The results of a survey exploring the factors that influenced students' choice of location, institution, and program and conducted among three cohorts of students over a 2-year period are presented. The results suggest that, above all other factors, the university's international ranking and the accreditations and rankings of its Business School are particularly influential in students' decision-making process. This finding highlights a potential exposure in terms of the scale of the institution's student recruitment and revenue streams should it ever experience a decline in its rankings or international reputation. Copyright ©Sage Publications, Inc.

Internationalisation in education facilitates student and teacher mobility. Though Hong Kong has embraced internationalisation in education, international university students can face challenges related to cultural difference. In teacher education, these challenges can be amplified, as student-teachers face expectations to teach schoolchildren within the local cultural context. Past studies in Hong Kong have illustrated how Mainland Chinese student-teachers face cultural and linguistic obstacles. Yet, little research considers the experiences of student-teachers from different nationalities in Hong Kong. This study investigates some consequences of internationalisation of teacher education in Hong Kong by examining the case of South Korean students learning to teach Liberal Studies, a “glocal” (outward-looking, but localised) subject, in a major tertiary institution. In this paper, we investigate South Korean students’ motivations, experiences, and challenges learning to be international teachers of a glocal curriculum, and examine the case as one instance of globalisation of education. Copyright © 2016 Korean Association for Multicultural Education.

Internationalisation has been actively pursued by Hong Kong's universities. Recent years have witnessed quantitative growth in non-local students. To ensure a qualitative success of internationalisation, it is crucial that universities cater for students with diverse academic backgrounds. This research explored challenges to academic adaptation. Focus group interviews were conducted with 124 local, mainland Chinese and international students at four Hong Kong universities. Findings revealed variation in academic adaptation challenges. First, adaptation to an English-medium-of-instruction was a concern for local and mainland Chinese students, while international students noted that limited English proficiency among other students undermined classroom discussions and led to tensions in group projects. Second, local students faced challenges in adapting to a wider range of assessment modes and academic writing, while mainland Chinese and international students reported how teacher-student relations and teaching approaches differed from prior educational experiences. Implications for the delivery of higher education amid internationalisation are discussed.
[Copyright © 2017 European Higher Education Society.]

The purposes of this study were to find out the differences in academic efficacy, academic adaptation and psychological adaptation between local, Mainland and international students in Hong Kong Universities and major predictors of the psychological and academic adaptation. In addition it explored the level and effect of contact between non-local students and local students. Questionnaires were used to collect data among six UGC-funded local universities in Hong Kong through SurveyMonkey. Findings revealed that Mainland students reported highest level of academic efficacy, academic adaptation and psychological adaptation, followed by international students and local students. In addition, students tended to interact most with those who were from the same cultural backgrounds. Implications for how university policy can better support their students are discussed.

Global student mobility and the internationalisation of higher education is characterized by the movement of Asian students to North America, Europe and Australasia. Recently the global student mobility has featured the entry of many Asian providers including Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. This growing international presence is attributed to policy settings in each country designed to promote the notion of “education hubs”. This paper reports on qualitative structured interviews with over 60 international students studying in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. The students interviewed were from China, Italy, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Indonesian, Myanmar, Germany, Thailand and Jordan and were studying a mix of postgraduate, undergraduate and pre-university studies. The paper reports on the reasons for studying and motivations for an Asian destination and their experiences of the academic and social environments of their host countries. The paper documents the social and cultural challenges that students experience particularly in dealing in a multilingual environment where English is used as the language of instruction. The research also looks at the ambitions of the students and their future plans. The interviews also provide evidence of some of the strengths and challenges for providers in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia in securing a position as leading providers of international education. From the experience of students and interviews with some administrators, the paper also reports on the commonalities and differences associated with the development of “education hubs” in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.