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.

Students' beliefs, attitudes, experiences and responses towards assessment reflect the ecology of their specific context. The study examines Hong Kong tertiary students' conceptions of assessment using focus group interviews and the content analysis technique. Using six focus groups, 26 Hong Kong university students were interviewed. Hong Kong tertiary students associated assessment with lifelong high-stake examinations. The assessment determined an individual's personal value or worth and achievement was an obligation one had towards one's family. As a legitimate tool for selecting the best candidates for educational and career opportunities, assessment provided upward social mobility, but also served the function of monitoring and surveillance to shape people's behaviour according to societal expectations. Resilience was reflected in both self-regulative agentic responses of effort, persistence and gaming strategy and passive escaping from the oppressive assessment system. The general emotional reaction towards assessment was negative; and participants cast doubts on the assessment validity, accuracy and the limited utility confined by academic-only content. In addition to the portrayal of the Chinese student as an effective, persistent learner, this study shows that Chinese students are very aware of the negative, controlling impact of assessment on their lives.
[Copyright of Higher Education Research & Development is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2014.890565]

Background: The Physical Education (PE) curriculum has already been reformed in most countries across the world. Problem solving, lifelong learning, and health issues have become major concerns of PE curricula. With the innovation of PE curricula, a variety of teaching approaches based on the constructivism learning theory have been designed and tested. Bunker and Thorpe, in an attempt to shift from the teacher-centred and skill-based learning to a student-centred approach, initially developed teaching games for understanding (TGfU), which links tactics and skills within a game context. This approach has attracted increasing attention from researchers and PE teachers, with a large body of literature examining the attitude of PE teachers and their implementation of TGfU. However, the differences in the perspective of TGfU among pre-service teachers, cooperating teachers, and university supervisors remain unexplored.
Purpose: The present study aimed to examine the views, learning experiences, and understandings of pre-service PE teachers, cooperating teachers, and university supervisors of TGfU in Hong Kong.
Context: Comprehensive PE curriculum reformation programmes were conducted in Hong Kong in 2002 and 2007 to promote student generic skills. The new PE curriculum has challenged teachers to introduce new strategies that promote students' generic skills, such as TGfU. Participants and settings: Ten pre-service teachers and their mentors, including nine cooperating teachers and three university supervisors were involved in the present study, which was conducted during the teaching practicum of pre-service teachers. Data collection: A semi-structured interview was conducted with each participant.
Data analysis: Interview data were analysed through deductive content analysis to identify meaningful pieces of information comprising the comprehensive text segment.
Findings: Three groups of teachers have positive views on TGfU although the reason behind

A Chinese translation of the 100-item Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS) is shortened as a 60-item instrument (which comprises 20 three-item scales) by removal of items that make the least contribution to the ILS scales from both alpha value and factor loading perspectives. The reliability and validation for administering the resultant 60-item ILS in the context of Hong Kong post-secondary education were assessed via analysis and re-analysis of results collected from two studies. The first study involved 1572 students enrolled in different kinds of post-secondary programmes in 2005; the second study involved 206 students enrolled in a special one-year, post-secondary programme in 2010. The internal consistency of most of the scales in the 60-item ILS was found to be good or satisfactory, except for three scales for which a need for further investigation or refinement is indicated. The exploratory factor analyses conducted in the two studies found factor patterns that closely resembled each other, with defining features comprising an active meaning-directed learning pattern that is mixed with reproduction-directed elements, an undirected learning pattern and different versions of a passive idealistic learning pattern. Overall, the current research provides qualified support for the reliability and validity of the shortened ILS for application in the context of Hong Kong post-secondary education.
[Copyright of Quality in Higher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13538322.2013.852707]

University support to students' transition to university life can be divided into three dimensions, namely: academic adjustment, social adjustment and psychological adjustment. Previous researches show that there are relationships among those adjustments. However, less is known about gender differences in these relationships. The purpose of this study is to examine the gender differences in the perception of the relationships among these adjustments during the transition period. The study is based on a survey of 265 students from five Hong Kong universities. The findings show that: (i) social adjustment is perceived by female students to have more influence on academic adjustment than male students; (ii) psychological adjustment is perceived by female students to have more influence on academic adjustment than male students; and (iii) there is no significant difference in the relationship between social and psychological adjustments for both female and male students. Finally, implications of this study are explored and discussed.
[Copyright of Tertiary Education and Management is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13583883.2011.629676]