Due to the social movements in Hong Kong and the outbreak of COVID-19, many non-local PhD students (NLPhDs) were scattered in different locations outside of Hong Kong. Since then, online teaching has been widely adopted in higher education and it affords students with continuable study and research opportunities but NLPhDs still experienced ever-shifting challenges and difficulties. This study draws on qualitative research methods to reveal the experiences of nine NLPhDs from different locations (e.g., Mainland China, Turkey, Vietnam, The Philippines, South Korea and Kazakhstan). Data were collected through in-depth individual interviews with the participants, their reflective journals and follow-up conversations via social networking applications. The findings show that NLPhDs experienced multifarious obstacles in study (suspended work, difficulties in adapting to online learning mode and stagnation in data collection). They had various emotional problems (stress, frustration, demotivation, sense of guilt and so on). However, they exercised agency (e.g., moving to spatially supportive contexts for study, reaching out to extra online resources, seeking supports from supervisors and tackling emotional problems) to overcome the challenges and difficulties. This study offers implications for doctoral students who are facing universal difficulties in times of crisis and their supervisors regarding how to offer appropriate support to their students. Copyright © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Kevin Wai Ho Yung and Huixuan Xu; individual chapters, the contributors.

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.

Tertiary education in Hong Kong has a long history. In 1911, The University of Hong Kong was the first university to be founded. The enrollment of tertiary education in Hong Kong after the Second World War was considered elite-type. The participation rate increased to 18% for first-degree courses, an expansion of approximately 50% in the undergraduate student population, during the early 1990s. Over time, it has changed from elitist to mass-type tertiary education. Another essential development of Hong Kong’s tertiary education system was a past Chief Executive announcement in 2000 to double the number of students participating in tertiary education up to 60% within ten years. This chapter aims to look historically at the development of tertiary education in Hong Kong and the impact of internationalization on its universalization. It also analyzes the problems in processes and discusses the sustainable development of tertiary education in Hong Kong this century. Copyright © 2022 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

起源於英國殖民體系的香港高等教育具有超百年歷史，大學自治隨著政府舉辦高等教育的目的、政府權力和權威及香港社會經濟環境的變化而變化，重大歷史事件形塑著國家與大學的關系。基於歷史制度主義的分析視角，通過查閱歷史檔案文獻及訪談，研究對香港高校治理的歷史變遷與特征進行了分析。文章表明：香港高等教育大體經歷了探索初創、斷裂停滯、穩定發展、規模擴張、深化改革、調適拓展等六個關鍵階段；不同歷史時期香港高等教育治理具有差異，但呈現出高等教育“去政治化”、政府積極不干預、自治與自由、國際化與法治化、問責與監督等變遷特征。大學植根於社會，構建與“一國兩制”相適應的香港高等教育內、外部治理體系及社會治理體系，從而促進大學服務國家戰略是香港未來高等教育治理的必然趨勢。 Copyright © 2022 江蘇教育報刊總社.

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.

This study in the research domain of higher education sustainability addresses issues of policy and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in and through Hong Kong public universities. The purpose of the study was to critically analyze the problématique of achieving the SDGs by the Hong Kong higher education sector. The study used a post-empiricist qualitative design with Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis and an embedded case study methodology in order to explore the issues of the SDGs policy and implementation in eight public Hong Kong universities. The concept of sustainability ensoulment and the Higher Education Institution Sustainability Model served as a theoretical grounding for the interpretative analysis. The interpretive results showed a broad range of university responses and governmental support for SDGs despite small number of universities, and a score of authentic SDGs-related efforts, which were fully embedded into the educational mission of the universities. The essence from the interpretive analysis of the data suggests that the universities’ authentic attainment of the SDGs requires a ‘salutary detachment’ from putting excessive priorities on superficial sustainability standards and considering universities’ global ranking league tables as their principal goal. The study provides a structured discussion within five thematic areas: (1) regional-dominant sustainability challenges; (2) financing structure and independence; (3) institutional organization; (4) extent of democratic processes; and (5) communication and interaction with society. The research argues that a genuine SDGs attainment originates from what universities know best and regard as their threefold mission—research, teaching and knowledge transfer—to effectively generate global citizens with full ensoulment of the SDGs spirit and values, and thus, turning universities into authentically sustainable institutions. Copyright © 2022 Education Research Institute, Seoul

Self-financing higher education institutions (SfHEIs) in Hong Kong help boost the local higher education participation rate, but they are labeled as second-tier opportunities for those with academic weaknesses. Students at SfHEIs may develop a negative self-concept that deteriorates their academic performance and psychological wellness. Therefore, it is critical to understand their self-concept and how it is built. From the narrative perspective, a self-concept is the storied experiences or stories that are lived; therefore, this study employs narrative inquiry using 15 SfHEI students to represent the general pattern of the participants’ experiences. This study proves that students at SfHEIs tend to view themselves as losers or inferiors based on their low self-evaluations of their Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) results, SfHEIs, and career futures. Additionally, this study sheds new light that the loser identity is historically developed from childhood during interactions with parents and teachers, as parents and teachers continuously reinforce the message that enrollment at a publicly funded university is the only way to achieve success in life. Copyright © 2022 by the authors.

Over the last three decades, there has been considerable transformation of global higher education institutions from a traditional role of teaching towards a contemporary role of diversified teaching, with intensive research and knowledge transfer taking place locally and internationally. Institutional transformations in Hong Kong’s higher education system over the last decade were no exception. Decentralised governance, increasing public accountability, social and economic responsibilities, enhancing quality and research excellence, sustaining society’s development through community engagement and knowledge transfer are essential changing functions and missions driving knowledge transfer strategy differences in the process of dynamic transformation. Knowledge transfer literatures reveal that they are usually associated with the third mission of higher education institutions, particularly in the knowledge-based economy context while facing society’s demanding role expectations and institutions’ fundamental transformation needs. To succeed in knowledge transfer and achieve the third mission, do different knowledge transfer strategies matter at the institutional and academic-based levels for striking challenges derived from the contemporary role and the mission of institutions? Nevertheless, different conceptual understandings of knowledge transfer, say interpreting from policy, implementation, organisation, and developmental perspective, may result in different interpretations on institutions’ strategy formulation, dissemination and implementation. However, these further align with their specified missions, roles, strengths, and stages of knowledge transfer development, inter alia, some identified knowledge transfer models. With the importance of achieving educational and social missions while enhancing sustainability through institutional knowledge transfer initiatives globally, there seems to be a lack of relevant studies in knowledge transfer strategies related to

Critical (multimodal) discourse studies of marketing or corporate documents of universities have shown the rapid neoliberalization of higher education and academia around the world. However, little attention has been paid to promotional materials for academic events. This chapter examines posters advertising invited lectures, colloquiums and conferences displayed on the campus of a “top” university in Hong Kong, the University of Hong Kong (HKU). The study draws on multimodal discourse studies and social theories of branding to analyze how different discursive components and semiotic placements of the posters create particular social meanings and values for the academic events and/or institutions. It identifies several dominant “tropes of branding” emerging from the displayed posters such as global connection and leadership, hierarchical internationalization with local advantage and interdisciplinarity. It shows how these tropes manifest or resonate with HKU’s more general self-branding enterprise of building itself into “Asia’s Global University”. The chapter concludes by discussing how its findings can deepen our understanding of institutionality in the areas of higher education and academia under the conditions of neoliberalism and globalization. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.