Yisu Zhou is an associate professor at Faculty of Education, University of Macau (UM/FED). He received a PhD degree from Michigan State University’s College of Education. Zhou’s doctoral dissertation studied the teaching profession (out-of-field teachers) using a large-scale survey from OECD. Prior to MSU, Zhou obtained his bachelor’s degree in statistics from East China Normal University and worked as an English teacher in rural Shaanxi province in China from 2005-2006, where his interests in understanding the educational process grew. Zhou’s research in education policy span across various topics, including finance, teacher education, sociology, and comparative ed. His research work appears on Discourse, Sociological Methods & Research, Chinese Sociological Review, International Journal of Educational Development and more. Zhou has been featured on various Chinese media including the Paper (Pengpai Xinwen), Beijing News (Xin Jing Bao), and China Newsweek (Zhonggo Xinwen Zhoukan).

In the University of Macau community, Zhou is deeply committed to teaching and service. He created FED’s first General Education course aimed at raising global awareness, for undergraduate students across all majors and departments. With an innovative approach to nurturing students from diverse backgrounds, this course is widely accepted by the students running at full capacity every year.

Zhou is an institutionalist. Notably, he has served, by election, as FED representative to the university senate from 2014-20, during which he was elected as the senate officer from 2018-19. Zhou’s longstanding love for reading and books led him to the university library committee, which he served as a member during 2013-20. Professionally, he actively engaged in the scholarly community and received an outstanding reviewer award from Educational Researcher in 2015.

Zhou’s service work reflected his thinking of higher education as an ecology of knowledge experts. He penned the FED’s five-year strategic plan (2020-25), advised on the University Library’s strategic plan (2020-25) and architected FED’s Doctoral of Education program. He is the recipient of the faculty service award of 2017-18 and 2021-22.