Navigating Campus Crisis: Empowering Student Affairs Officers in Decision-Making in Response to Global Uncertainties

Abstract This study investigated experiences and decision-making strategies of Student Affairs Officers (SAOs) facing significant crisis at a Sino-foreign cooperative university during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using habitual decision-making and 4 R crisis management frameworks, the study examined how SAOs navigated crisis management, anticipated student needs, and exercised decision-making authority. Findings highlight the importance of empowering SAOs through shared governance and contingency planning to enhance their capacity for managing future crises and supporting sustainable internationalization. ...

May 30, 2025

Hidden Synergy: Hong Kong's Role in the Development of Science and Technology in Chinese Higher Education

Abstract This paper examines the rapid growth of China’s science and technology (S&T) sector within the broader context of higher education, focusing on Hong Kong’s crucial yet understudied role in this transformation. While conventional narratives emphasize China’s relationship with the United States, our analysis reveals Hong Kong’s distinct contribution as a vital bridge in China’s scientific development. Drawing on comprehensive data from the Web of Science, institutional archives, university leader biographies, and PhD dissertation records, we identify three key patterns. First, Hong Kong ranks as one of mainland China’s key international collaborators in S&T alongside established nations like the UK, Japan, and Germany, though the U.S. remains the dominant partner. Second, this collaboration shows clear temporal characteristics, with partnerships intensifying during the 1990s as Hong Kong’s research doctoral programs matured and mainland students sought advanced training. Third, the collaboration exhibits distinct geographical patterns, with Beijing maintaining centrality despite distance, while Guangdong leverages its proximity to Hong Kong. Our findings challenge the perception of Hong Kong as merely a finance-driven city, revealing its role in fostering a robust academic community that facilitated knowledge transfer between mainland institutions and global scientific networks. This relationship thrived despite cultural and ideological differences, combining mainland China’s motivated talent pool with Hong Kong’s academic freedom and international connections. By documenting this understudied dimension of China’s educational development, this paper offers new insights into the forces behind the country’s emergence as a global scientific power. ...

March 31, 2025

Student Voices: Constructing Leadership Identities in a Global University

Abstract The development of student leadership in higher education increasingly requires understanding how leadership identities are constructed through social interactions, particularly in cross-cultural contexts. Drawing on DeRue’s (2011) adaptive leadership theory, this study explores how students claim and grant leader and follower identities through their social interactions and how both cultural backgrounds and institutional contexts shape these identities in a global university in China. Participants engaged in ongoing claiming and granting processes where leadership identities were negotiated through individual, relational, and collective social interactions. Some participants needed to build trust and validate their leadership capabilities (individual internalisation), while others emerged through recognition from followers (relational recognition). At the same time, some gained legitimacy through broader group endorsement (collective endorsement). By identifying key patterns in how students claim and grant leader identities across cultural boundaries, we provide insights that can help institutions better support student leadership development while bridging cultural differences. ...

March 31, 2025

The Game Plan: Four Contradictions in the Development of World Class Universities from the Global South

April 27, 2016