The aim of this study is to investigate the reasons for academic stress in Hong Kong and provide recommendations to the government on ways to alleviate this problem. Using photovoice, 15 undergraduate students from a private community college in Hong Kong were invited to take and discuss photographs regarding their lived experiences of learning. Thematic analysis is applied to generate themes from the photovoice data. The results suggest several possible reasons for academic stress, including examination demands, school administration and parents. However, the underlying social reason for academic stress may be the internal contradictions of the education system. That is, the education system purports to value all-round and whole-person education but subordinates this worthy goal to examination results. Thus, the results of the study suggest that the government should address this internal contradiction by considering educational, economic and cultural factors when planning educational policies and/or changes. Copyright © 2020 National Institute of Education, Singapore.

In this chapter, the authors use a policy and program perspective to explore the specific career development needs of gifted learners in Hong Kong. They first examine recent developments in gifted education and career education policies in Hong Kong, then draw on relevant literature to highlight salient career development needs of gifted learners. Next, consideration is given to possible priority content for career guidance programs for these students, and some existing programs are reviewed. The chapter ends with a summary of the implications for educators, counselors, researchers and policy-makers. Copyright © 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Hong Kong has been regarded as one of the strong examination-driven systems worldwide. Under the current education system, local secondary school students have to sit for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) at the end of Grade 12. Although the continuing assessment reform since 2000 tried to reduce the number of high-stakes examinations for secondary school students (from two to one at the end of the six-year secondary education), it remained a high-stakes public examination because the examination results usually have a significant influence on learners’ future pathways, including further education and employment. In respect of the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020, many international public examinations have been tried to be called off, but the Hong Kong government did persist in moving ahead with HKDSE. This aroused criticisms about whether the government has taken students’ well-being as a top priority because the annual survey on DSE students’ stress recorded the highest levels in 2020, 2021 and 2022. In this paper, the positioning and myth of HKDSE and its tie to Confucian philosophy will be examined. Students’ well-being is also discussed regarding rescheduling the examination and the impacts on the mental health of all DSE students, notwithstanding the challenges that can bring to any successful outcomes. It is hoped to urge mental health education and promotion could be carried out systematically to improve its effectiveness. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The number of mainland Chinese students was 791 (64% of total international students in Hong Kong) in 1996/97 whereas such number went up to 12,037 (73%) in 2016/17—more than fifteenfold increase within 20 years. In particular, mainland China undergraduates (MCU) exhibited a phenomenal growth from 5 in 1996/97 to 6,852 in 2016/17. Nonetheless, few studies have focused on this group of students concerning their acculturative stress and/or mental health in Hong Kong, even though there were several cases of suicide committed by MCU in Hong Kong in the past decade. Completing tertiary education in one’s home country is generally not an easy task, and pursuing a university degree in a culturally different and unfamiliar place will surely add to one’s difficulties. A literature search of scales assessing acculturative stress showed that none of the existent scales were applicable to MCU in Hong Kong, either because of language issues, different target population, or cross-cultural problems. Hence, the purpose of this study was to develop and validate a suitable scale to measure the acculturative stress of MCU in Hong Kong.A 172-item pool was created from literature, in-depth and focus group interviews, and then validated in a sample of 274 MCU in Hong Kong using one-parameter Rasch model analysis to produce a 117-item Acculturative Stress Scale for Mainland Chinese Undergraduate Students (ASSMCUS) in 21 dimensions, which are English Barrier: Limited English Proficiency; English Barrier: Limited Colloquial English; Cantonese Barrier: Limited Cantonese Proficiency; Cantonese Barrier: Limited Colloquial Cantonese; Study Stress: Heavy Course Load; Study Stress: Student-Centred Learning Approach; Cultural Difference: Mutual Cultural Misunderstanding; Cultural Difference: Identifying with Hong Kong’s Culture and Values; Social Interaction: Loneliness; Social Interaction: Hard to Make Friends with Hong Kong People; Social Interaction: Limited Social Connectedness; Discrimination:

This paper examines contested meanings of international student mobility in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The study tries to understand why policy makers and university managers find it difficult to diversify student bodies in these jurisdictions. In particular, problems with the conceptualisation of international student mobility are discussed. In practical terms, the paper delineates key boosters and barriers for inbound flows which received little attention in the previous literature that primarily focused on the outbound mobility. Finally, the researchers discuss important policy leverages that could enhance the value of engagement of international students in transcultural learning. Copyright © 2019 James Nicholas Publishers.

Recent discussions on student feedback literacy have been primarily conceptual and framed from the perspectives of scholars and educators. Few empirical studies have explored what and how college students conceive of student feedback literacy. To address this research gap, we explored Hong Kong college students’ conceptions of student feedback literacy. Fifteen Bachelor of Education students were individually interviewed to elaborate on the mind maps they had drawn about student feedback literacy. The data analysis revealed that the participants depicted several feedback competencies required for students to elicit and process feedback but paid scant attention to the competencies needed to enact feedback. Meanwhile, they believed that a feedback-literate student should appreciate the values of feedback and be active, modest and committed in the feedback process. The participants’ conceptions of student feedback literacy were ecologically influenced by Chinese cultural values, the university learning setting, their prior feedback experiences, and course learning. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s).