ABSTRACT This study used Response‐Driven Sampling (RDS) to construct an academic peer network for PhD students in China and conducted a questionnaire survey. After testing 639 valid samples that met the random recruitment assumption, empirical analysis was conducted on academic peer network effects on the research competence of PhD candidates (RCPC). The results show that RCPC is significantly influenced by academic peer network size, homogeneity, and peer competence. (1) Peer competence demonstrates the strongest positive effect on RCPC, particularly for those with low initial research competence. (2) In comparison, the effect of network homogeneity is relatively smaller and predominantly negative. The homogeneity between PhD students and their academic peers remains relatively low across the sample, with all values below 0.7. (3) The network size of weak ties does not significantly affect RCPC. However, among strong ties, the number of peers from other departments and universities exhibits an inverted U‐shaped relationship with self‐assessed competence, with the optimal network size being 16 peers. This study not only suggests PhD students strengthen their social connections with peers from different disciplines and institutions, aiming to maintain a moderate‐sized network within strong ties, thereby enhancing their own abilities and achieving long‐term development, but also indicates the applicability and generalizability of applying RDS to peer network surveys.
ABSTRACT This systematic literature review synthesizes and analyses a corpus of 140 studies on the size and flows of international student mobility (ISM), as well as its determinants. The review confirms a consistent global increase in international students, albeit experienced differently in terms of magnitude by certain regions and countries. However, it also shows how ISM is decentralizing and diversifying, diluting the traditional East–West flows against the acceleration of regional mobility and the emergence of hubs. While criticizing the incomplete theorisation of ISM research, the review combines the push‐pull factor approach with an examination of individual factors to analyse determinants. Findings show that individual factors and push factors have been under‐researched compared to pull factors. Individual factors foreground students' agency, as these are not simply reactive to external conditions when making decisions. Despite limitations, such as sampling methods or data availability and comparability, the review captures state‐of‐the‐art knowledge on ISM and suggests future research avenues. Its findings have direct implications for institutional strategy and national policymaking.
ABSTRACT This paper examines how European Knowledge Society policy scripts, amplified by the European Universities initiative, are appropriated in the strategic plans of Portuguese public universities. Focusing on nine universities participating in European Universities Alliances, it asks how they position the ‘relationship with society’ in mission narratives, whether they prioritise commercial or civic/socially responsive engagement, and what patterns of convergence, local translation and decoupling emerge. The study combines a two‐stage document analysis: frequency‐based semantic analysis of mission‐related terms and qualitative content analysis of strategic plans. Findings show that societal engagement is now central to mission discourse, often alongside teaching and research. However, institutions differ markedly: some emphasise commercialisation, innovation and knowledge transfer; others stress civic responsibility, social cohesion, culture and sustainability; most combine both. The paper argues that these hybrid narratives reflect adaptive responses to multiple legitimacy pressures rather than inconsistency or failure.
ABSTRACT Perceived employability is a key learning outcome for higher education students who wish to advance their careers after graduation. Most studies of perceived employability have focused on undergraduate students; little attention has been paid to master's students. Given the increasing number of master's students and their diverse employment needs, this study examined the relationships among motivation, approaches to learning, and perceived employability. Following a cross‐sectional design, data were collected from 786 master's students across various programmes and institutions in Hong Kong and analysed using structural equation modelling. By measuring perceived employability as the outcome variable, the results revealed that master's students with higher intrinsic motivation were more likely to adopt a deep approach to learning, while those with higher extrinsic motivation were more likely to adopt a surface approach. The results indicated that approaches to learning fully mediated the association between intrinsic motivation and perceived employability. On the other hand, approaches to learning partially mediated the relationship between extrinsic motivation and perceived employability. These results shed light on the unique learning goals of master's students currently preparing for employment and their strategic learning approaches. The implications for enhancing meaningful learning experiences and employability among master's students are discussed.
ABSTRACT The present article focuses on faculty members' use of student learning assessment data to drive pedagogical innovation. Fuelled by policy recommendations, the high‐level commitment to assessment and data‐based decision‐making has proliferated in higher education contexts. However, evidence from the ground shows that these practices are still problematic. Given the relevant changes in policy and practice in higher education systems and the call for the ground‐up re‐development of assessment, a systematic review of qualitative studies has been performed. More specifically, this meta‐synthesis considered 11 studies conducted in 4 English‐speaking countries that outline the landscape of student learning assessment and data use literature over a 10‐year period (2013–2022). Three main themes emerge from this study: namely, the pluralism of assessment practices and instruments; a (dis)connection between assessment practice, quality assurance, and the teaching‐learning process; and the persistent concerns of faculty members about assessment and policy requirements. Implications for educational research and practice are discussed.
ABSTRACT This paper investigates research misconduct in Asia within the realm of higher education (HE) research by analysing 283 articles that were retracted from international peer‐reviewed journals from their inception through 2024. The study identified the primary reason for retraction as paper mill, followed by violation of research ethics and manipulation of the peer‐review process. On average, these papers got retracted after one year of publication. Most retracted articles were contributed by China and published in a small number of Q3 journals. The findings of this study enhance the HE research community's understanding of the scale of retraction in Asia, with the goal of raising awareness and establishing more robust mechanisms for monitoring the publication process.
ABSTRACT Universities worldwide are expanding entrepreneurship education, yet less is known about how students understand entrepreneurship and what factors shape their entrepreneurial intentions. Drawing on survey data from 561 undergraduate students across diverse disciplines and institutions in Hong Kong, this study examines students' perceptions of entrepreneurship, their participation in entrepreneurship‐related learning, and variations in entrepreneurial intention. The findings show that entrepreneurship is rarely seen as an immediate post‐graduation career choice, although longer‐term intention varies considerably across students. Respondents commonly viewed entrepreneurship both as new venture creation and as a means of achieving social impact and personal development. Participation was concentrated in knowledge‐oriented learning activities, while action‐oriented experiences were relatively rare, suggesting a gap between interest and practical readiness. Non‐STEM students reported higher entrepreneurial intention than STEM students, whereas differences by gender, family income and academic performance were not statistically significant. The study highlights the need for universities to provide more experiential, process‐based and inclusive forms of entrepreneurship education. It contributes context‐specific evidence on entrepreneurship as a graduate career pathway and offers practical recommendations for fostering entrepreneurial talent in Hong Kong higher education.
ABSTRACT This paper examines how the taboos and problems perceived by doctoral students are associated with their well‐being and their intentions to persist in or leave academia. We distinguish between doctoral problems—stressors associated with doctoral study—and doctoral taboos, understood as issues that remain difficult to voice in relationships with supervisors or peers because their disclosure may evoke shame or threaten these relationships. Drawing on a mixed‐methods design conducted in the Czech Republic, we first developed core perceived doctoral problems and taboos based on a qualitative analysis of 21 in‐depth interviews. Doctoral problems and taboos were subsequently examined in a national survey of 190 doctoral students using machine learning models. Financial difficulties constituted the most prevalent doctoral problem, reported by roughly 75% of students. Partial dependence analyses indicated that several doctoral taboos (e.g., finances, parenthood, supervisor quality) were among the strongest predictors of burnout, depression, anxiety, stress and intentions to drop out or leave academia. The study contributes to debates on well‐being in doctoral education by illuminating which issues within doctoral education become taboo and how such tabooization relates to doctoral well‐being and intentions to remain in academia.
ABSTRACT This study addresses the limitations of structural reforms in higher education institutions (HEIs) by emphasizing the need for a robust sustainability culture to support long‐term transformation. Despite growing interest, the concept of sustainability culture is still underdefined, leading to fragmented practices and a lack of shared orientation. To clarify this concept, the study applies a culture‐theoretical framework and combines literature review with expert interviews to examine what constitutes sustainability culture in HEIs and how to identify it. The analysis indicates that participatory structures, respectful work environments, and transparent communication are critical cultural conditions that shape the effectiveness of sustainability efforts. By defining and translating these dimensions into observable indicators, the study contributes to organizational theory in the context of sustainability and provides practical guidance for institutional development. It demonstrates that cultural initiatives are essential complements to structural strategies and that a mature sustainability culture fosters well‐being and collaboration within and across institutions.
ABSTRACT As an emerging donor in the Global South, Malaysia has increasingly advanced development assistance (DA) through its internationalisation of higher education (IHE) agenda. DA can be understood as a policy domain at the intersection of HE and foreign policy, requiring alignment between the two agendas. Assessing how these policies and practices have evolved in the Malaysian HE sector is therefore important for generating evidence‐based insights into future strategic directions, particularly as Malaysia advances towards developed‐nation status. Adopting a historical approach, this article traces the development of Malaysia's DA‐HE policies and practices through the lens of outward‐oriented internationalisation of higher education (OIHE). Malaysia's DA‐HE trajectory across four phases: the first phase marks the establishment of technical cooperation as the core instrument of DA–HE engagement; the second reflects its embedding within IHE policy; the third captures diversification through innovative and multilateral modalities; and the fourth signals a stronger strategic alignment with global prominence and educational diplomacy. These developments occur mainly through two modalities: financial and technical support, primarily underpinned by South–South Cooperation (SSC) and South–South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC). This case study not only provides empirical evidence of the OIHE typology's real‐world case but also demonstrates how DA functions as a strategic instrument for advancing IHE, enhancing national positioning (including place, image, and influence internationally), and soft power.
ABSTRACT Open discussions about international students' mental health challenges remain a taboo in U.S. doctoral education. The taboo nature of mental health is especially powerful in doctoral environments which celebrate “grit,” resilience, and self‐sufficiency while either tacitly or openly discouraging students from seeking help. This qualitative study investigates the taboo of international doctoral students' mental health challenges by drawing upon multiple interviews with eight international doctoral students working in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields at a U.S. research university. Data pertaining to mental health challenges point to four themes: (1) cultural isolation and displacement, (2) financial insecurity, (3) advising relationships, and (4) support networks. Analysing data through the lens of Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory, this article then argues that institutions must consider how to address students' challenges on all five levels—micro, meso, exo, macro, and chrono—to destigmatize the taboo of mental health in doctoral education.
ABSTRACT This study challenges the common assumption that learning about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is consistently associated with civic engagement in higher education. Adopting a configurational perspective, it examines how different learning patterns are associated with variations in participatory outcomes. Drawing on the knowledge–attitude–skills (KAS) framework, the study analyses survey data from undergraduate students within a higher education system shaped by University Social Responsibility (USR) policy initiatives. The findings show that SDG learning does not demonstrate a uniform association with civic engagement. Instead, the relationship varies according to how learning experiences are configured across knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Three configurations are identified: balanced, misaligned, and low engagement. Building on this insight, the study reinterprets the relationship among SDGs, USR, and Global Citizenship Education (GCED) as a mechanism‐based framework. In this framework, SDGs define the content of learning, USR provides the context for practice, and GCED functions as an integrative mechanism that connects knowledge, attitudes, and skills. These elements are interconnected through learning processes that shape how educational experiences are associated with civic engagement. Overall, this study offers a configurational lens for understanding sustainability education and highlights the need to rethink higher education policy agendas in Asia by focusing on how learning is structured rather than only on what is taught.
ABSTRACT Generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) technologies have disrupted the longstanding norms and practices of education and research in universities, fueling widespread discussions across the humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS) disciplines including in the community of doctoral education. This qualitative study examines how communication about gen AI use takes place in HASS research supervision meetings, and the ways that doctoral supervisors and international doctoral students navigate these conversations. Thematic analysis of interviews with international doctoral students and doctoral supervisors reveals the use of gen AI by international doctoral students as a delicate and often ‘tabooed’ topic in supervision meetings. We argue that gen AI being a taboo topic in supervisory meetings reflects both the ambiguity surrounding the legitimacy of using gen AI in doctoral research, as well as the influence of intersecting supervisory power dynamics, including structural power , epistemic power and relational power . We recommend supervisory communication strategies to critically facilitate the transition to AI in international doctoral education.
ABSTRACT This study explores how institutional research (IR) units in South Korea and Japan are shaped by the complex interaction between government accountability pressures and organisational agency. Based on a comparative qualitative study, we propose a framework comprising four types of organisational responses to accountability pressures, differentiated by the degree of compliance and agency: (I) bureaucratic compliance, (II) strategic compliance, (III) symbolic autonomy and (IV) learning autonomy. In the Korean cases, where universities operate under strong government intervention in evaluation and funding, IR units remain largely in bureaucratic compliance but are gradually moving towards strategic compliance through organisational learning. In the Japanese cases, under weaker external pressure, IR units tend to exhibit symbolic autonomy—formal autonomy without integrative governance. These findings challenge the assumed dichotomy between high compliance and low agency, showing that agency, although bounded, can emerge even under strong accountability constraints, whereas low‐compliance environments do not necessarily foster proactive organisational learning. The framework offers a transferable lens for analysing IR units across diverse policy contexts. We conclude by emphasising the importance of balancing accountability pressures with internal conditions for organisational learning and professionalisation in sustainable IR development.
ABSTRACT The rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is significantly transforming the professional landscape, necessitating a reevaluation of how professional curricula foster undergraduate employability. While most existing studies rely on structured scales to explore linear causal relationships, this approach limits the ability to capture students' career readiness when navigating the technological disruptions introduced by GenAI. To fill this research gap, our study examines 36 undergraduate career planning documents as authentic evidence of students' career readiness. Utilising a data‐driven text mining approach, we uncover the underlying patterns of students' career strategies in the GenAI era. The research findings indicate the following: (1) Students' career readiness can be categorised into four typical adaptation profiles: goal‐oriented, experience‐driven, skill‐based and context‐anticipatory. (2) The formation of their career development intentions involves a comprehensive trade‐off among four core elements: career advancement, technological resources, process experience and practical context, reflecting the dynamic interplay between instrumental and value rationality. (3) To address the career uncertainties introduced by GenAI, students adopt two primary adaptation strategies based on varying regulatory foci: maximising skill utility and adjusting behavioural perceptions of future work. This study reveals the critical pathway through which professional curricula shape graduate employability, providing evidence‐based guidance for higher education policymakers and educators aiming to cultivate innovative professionals with both technological adaptability and professional resilience.
ABSTRACT This study examines the emergence of ethically problematic research practices during the establishment of an Institutional Research Ethics Committee (IREC) at a newly founded, research‐intensive university in Kazakhstan. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews with faculty members, IREC members, and institutional leaders involved in the university's formative years, the study explores how institutional, individual, and contextual factors shaped engagement with research ethics governance. The findings identify practices such as bypassing ethics review, retrospective protocol submissions, limited ethics training among IREC members, and passive participation in review processes. While these practices do not always align with narrow definitions of research misconduct (e.g., fabrication, falsification, plagiarism), they represent significant deviations from core research ethics principles, including accountability, protection of human subjects, professional competence, and adherence to institutional regulations. The study interprets these findings through research ethics frameworks and organizational justice theory, highlighting how institutional uncertainty, diverse academic backgrounds, and perceived procedural and interactional injustice contributed to inconsistent compliance with ethics governance structures. By situating these dynamics within the context of a accelerated university and transition economy system, the study demonstrates how ethics governance may be unevenly institutionalized in accelerated universities. The paper contributes to a more context‐sensitive understanding of unethical research practices beyond conventional misconduct typologies and offers implications for strengthening institutional capacity and ethical oversight in emerging higher education systems.
ABSTRACT The mobility of doctoral graduates shapes both early‐career trajectories and the geography of research talent. In China, doctoral training, research resources and high‐value employment opportunities are concentrated in a limited number of cities, so the transition from doctoral education to first employment is closely structured by educational hierarchy and regional inequality. Using a 2025 survey of doctoral graduates matched to city‐level indicators of economic, research and digital capacity, this study examines doctoral mobility through the linked locations of origin, training site and employment. It distinguishes between the likelihood of taking employment outside the PhD city and the gains associated with destination sorting among inter‐city movers. The findings show that graduates' location after doctoral training is central to subsequent mobility outcomes. Among movers, origin‐to‐employment gains are explained primarily by the extent to which the employment city exceeds the PhD city in economic, research and digital capacity. Remaining in the PhD city may still involve substantial spatial advantage, because apparent immobility can reflect an earlier move into a stronger training location. Mobility is also socially differentiated, with gender, age, marriage, institutional background, overseas exposure and sectoral pathways associated with distinct patterns of destination access and mobility gains. The study conceptualizes doctoral mobility through the relationship among origin, training site and employment location. It also suggests that talent policy should address the spatial concentration of doctoral training and research capacity alongside post‐graduation recruitment.
ABSTRACT The rapid proliferation of education hubs throughout Asia underscores the need for a robust analytical framework to evaluate their long‐term sustainability and competitiveness. This study addresses this gap by proposing a novel Dual‐Diamond model, which integrates Porter's Theory of Competitive Advantage with a Context‐Input‐Process‐Output (CIPO) framework to assess the Sustainable Competitiveness of Education Hubs (SCEH). Employing a mixed‐methods approach that combines expert consultation and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a quantifiable Education Hub Sustainable Competitiveness Index (EHSCI) was developed, comprising 28 indicators across four dimensions. Application of Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) to data from 12 Asian education hub countries reveals a distinct core‐periphery spatial pattern. Furthermore, the analysis identifies two systemic configurations—termed ‘regular’ and ‘irregular’ diamond systems—which reflect contrasting strategies for sustaining competitiveness, characterized respectively by balanced synergistic development or concentrated strategic strengths. The research provides both a theoretically grounded model and a practical diagnostic tool for policymakers, offering evidence‐based recommendations to enhance hub sustainability through targeted interventions.
ABSTRACT This review article explores the often‐unspoken power dynamics between doctoral supervisors and students, focusing on the taboo surrounding the discussion of these imbalances. Power differentials in supervisory relationships significantly influence the doctoral experience. However, historical, cultural and institutional norms often prevent open discussions about these power structures, allowing them to persist unchallenged. Adopting a cross‐cultural perspective, this article examines supervisory power relations across Australia, South Africa and the South Pacific region connected through a consortium in the Next Generation Research SuperVision Project (RSVP), a Research England funded project. Whilst Australian academic culture is often seen as egalitarian, hidden hierarchies persist. In South Africa, power asymmetries are deeply entangled with social and racial histories, whilst in the South Pacific region, respect for authority can inhibit dissent. Framed through the lens of taboo, this article highlights how silences around power impact doctoral education and calls for culturally attuned strategies to address them.
