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The advent of new technology is breaking the boundaries of traditional teaching and learning patterns with virtual worlds (VW) creating new frontiers in education. Previous research has explored the use of VW within educational settings. However, limited studies have investigated the transition processes that educators experience by adopting VW based online tools during the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative exploratory study investigated 18 Chilean lecturers' teaching experiences using a three-dimensional computer-mediated environment: Second Life. Findings suggest that changing from traditional to virtual teaching context is a complex process, which (re)shaped the lecturers' various senses of identity and agency towards different instructional approaches resulting in the sense of in-betweenness with multiple digital competencies. These changes indicated that they taught in an 'in-between' mode mapped by different teaching mediations. The participants' teaching experiences of shaping a sense of in-betweenness could provide a unique theoretical lens to explore instructors' teaching experiences from traditional to a technology-mediated online setting.

Research has been widely conducted to understand international student mobility, particularly from Global South to North. However, there is little attention paid to international doctoral students' research and learning experiences in non-traditional destinations, particularly in the Chinese context. Drawing upon the concept of Communities of Practice, we administered semi-structured interviews with six international doctoral students and their supervisors at a prestigious Chinese university to understand how they experienced intercultural research and supervision in 'shi men', a culturally and pedagogically informed collective and semi-closed learning community. Our research findings help elucidate how the different social and academic practices have created various types of 'shi men'. Each of these academic families reflects the unique features of doctoral learning in China and has implications for international doctoral students' overall learning experience. This timely study offers distinct insights into cross-cultural learning, research, and supervision practices in China.

Drawing upon notions of a global higher education policy field and recently theorised conceptions of 'global-local' imbrications in social space, this article explores the complex tensions that characterise the enactment of internationalisation policies in Chinese higher education (HE) and their contrasting effects upon domestic and international students. Ten domestic Chinese and ten international students attending an elite university in China were interviewed. The article reveals that although the Chinese government and universities ostensibly sought to introduce internationalisation policies that 'managed' domestic and international students 'similarly', comparisons of domestic and international students' experiences revealed different ways of recruiting, educating, and hosting domestic and international students; these left the former feeling the system was inequitable and encouraged lower standards, and the latter feeling the system was opaque and difficult to navigate. The study cautions that the political imperative to increase the number of international students as a measure of internationalisation adversely influences efforts to develop sustainable international HE in China, even as the limitations of this approach are increasingly recognised.

International doctoral students are an influential group in knowledge creation and cross-national engagement. Existing studies have mainly focused on this cohort's learning and research experiences in developed countries. However, relatively few studies have explored these students' experiences in non-traditional learning destinations. Drawing upon Bourdieu's concepts of field, capital and habitus, and the notion of global-national-local imbrications, this study explores international doctoral students' academic learning experiences in what can be understood as the Chinese academic sub-field. By interviewing 35 international doctoral students in a Chinese university, findings suggest that these students encountered certainty and uncertainty initially before some were able to navigate the Chinese academic sub-field more strategically. As a result, students progressively developed an in-between cosmopolitan habitus; this included as a result of exposure to both Chinese and international academic logics through learning with Chinese academic returnees. Students' experiences suggest that the Chinese academic sub-field can be understood as something of an in-between field that imbricates the global, national, and local within higher education contexts.

Students as partners (SaP) is gaining attention in higher education (HE) as universities worldwide rethink pedagogical practices through a relationship-rich lens. Many studies have examined partnership practices, conceptions of learner-teacher partnerships and its application in various (mainly anglophone) contexts. However, relatively few studies have explored SaP issues in non-anglophone contexts (e.g., China). In this study, we interviewed 20 lecturers at a Chinese university to understand how they perceived the role of students in teaching and learning. Our reflexive thematic analysis found that many lecturers were open to, and some already practising forms of, partnership practices. But pragmatic, structural and cultural issues caused hesitation, particularly the cultural heritage of Confucian education and global HE competition drivers rewarding research outputs over teaching practices. This study is an initial step in exploring academics' perceptions of SaP in a changing Chinese HE system with a strong policy focus on student-centred approaches.

With the growing trend of globalisation and the internationalisation of higher education, China actively recruits more international students to study at Chinese universities. Notably, international doctoral students are a significant cohort in this trend. Although many studies have investigated international students' learning experiences in China, few have explored their motivations to pursue doctoral degrees in China. To fill this gap, through the push-pull model, we explored the motivation of 55 international doctoral students from three Chinese universities. The findings show that various national, institutional, and individual factors comprehensively influenced their choice to pursue doctoral studies in Chinese universities. Their experiences also reflect that China is progressively establishing a systematic mechanism to attract international doctoral students by taking advantage of economic development and Chinese academic returnees. While these advantages attract international doctoral students to study in China, Chinese universities may still play an alternative role in international doctoral education. This study contributes to international higher education and doctoral education. Implications and suggestions for future studies are discussed.

As Asia's largest host country of international students, China's digital placemaking is impacting on international students' experience whilst studying and living in the country. This qualitative study addresses the issue of international students' transition to the digital environment in China. It draws on the theoretical perspectives of international students' digital journeys and miniaturised mobilities to inform thematic analysis of artefact-mediated student interviews and social media posts. Findings show that international students' digital journeys in China are characterised by three modes of digital adaptation including "digital shock," "digital border crossing" and "digital approachability." We argue that engaging in these modes of digital adaptation has reconstituted international students' subjectivity through empowering miniaturised mobility, but also a sense of digital in-betweenness as they operate between two different virtual worlds.

Many Chinese universities engage in transnational higher education by establishing articulation programs with international partners. Although research has broadly investigated transnational higher education topics, few studies have explored Chinese students' intercultural learning and adjustment experiences in these programs. This qualitative study explored seven Chinese students' experiences in two China-Australia articulation programs to add insights to this under-researched topic. The findings indicated that research participants' intercultural learning experiences were far more complex than the theoretical model of "stress-adaptationdevelopment." The students' agency, identity, and belonging underwent dynamic changes due to academic inconsistencies and differences, including the use of technology, assessment, and teaching strategies. This study suggests that it is important for educators to consider educational differences in designing and implementing transnational articulation programs.

In order to explore the contextual factors that may influence Chinese early study abroad students' acculturation experiences in Canada, we conducted in-depth interviews with 20 Chinese early study abroad students and 6 Chinese parents. Using Oppedal and Toppelberg's acculturation development model as the analytical framework, we identify six microsystem factors (parents, host family, custodian, overseas-study service agent, friends, and church), two mesosystem factors (parents-custodian relationship and custodian-host family relationship), three exosystem factors (social services, public safety, and immigration policies), one majority culture macro factor (multiculturalism), and the time dimension are related to Chinese early study abroad students' acculturation experiences. In addition to these factors, locosystem factors such as geography, physical environment, and climate of the city in which they live are also important. Based on these findings, we advise all stakeholders to create a supportive and sustainable environment for Chinese early study abroad students to live in Canada.

With the growing trend of globalization, an increasing number of Chinese students choose to study overseas. While researchers have conducted many studies to explore factors motivating these students to undertake higher education overseas, few studies have investigated Chinese students' motivations to pursue secondary education abroad. To fill this research gap, we interviewed 20 Chinese secondary students and four Chinese parents to explore Chinese students' motivations to pursue secondary education abroad by taking Canada as a study destination example. By adopting the push-pull model as the theoretical framework, we identify two macro-level push factors and three micro-level push factors that propel Chinese secondary students to study outside China. It also reveals five pull factors at the macro-level and two pull factors at the micro-level that attract these students to select Canada as a study abroad destination. On the basis of identifying these push-pull factors, we further discuss the similarities and differences of Chinese students' motivations to pursue secondary education abroad and to undertake higher education overseas.

Considerable research has investigated Chinese students' intercultural insights in different national contexts, where culture is understood as coterminous with nationality/regionality. However, few have explored the more micro-political aspects of Chinese doctoral students' narrative experiences in national settings, within a more cultural framework. This article seeks to take such an approach through a reflexive narrative account of the first author's experiences as a Chinese doctoral student in Australia. To do so, we draw upon Bhabha's notion of 'in-between space', and work by Gill on intercultural adjustment. We show how the first author's doctoral journey was characterised by a sense of 'in-betweenness' at the micro-political level, including in relation to the cultural boundary crossing associated with having to change fields of study and supervisors. This narrative provides a nuanced account of an international student's experiences and reflects the usefulness of examining the particularity of international doctoral students' learning experiences at a much more fine-grained level, via a more intercultural lens.

This article illustrates the author's transnational learning experiences in a China-Australia 2 + 2 articulation programme. Transnational articulation programme is being actively adopted by many Chinese universities to enhance the diversity of educational structures as a response to the growing trend of internationalisation of higher education. Although many existing studies have investigated the topic of transnational education, few have revealed students' learning experiences via a reflexive narrative approach. To add insights to this under-researched field, the author examined his learning journey in a 2 + 2 programme based on the intercultural adjustment model of 'stress-adaptation-development' and the concept of 'in-between' space. The narrative indicated that his senses of identity, agency, and belonging underwent constant change in the 2 + 2 learning process, which shaped his sense of in-betweenness. The exploration of such learning experiences could contribute to the literature on intercultural adjustment and transnational higher education from a student perspective.

Chinese universities are increasingly entering into transnational higher education partnerships with institutions in primarily English-speaking countries. With this increase in programmes, there is a growing body of research investigating both policy and practice. Our study contributes insight into how students in a China-Australia programme experienced assessment drawing on theorisations of sustainable assessment. We present findings from interviews with 10 Chinese students who shared stories and reflections of their experiences of assessment and learning that reveal the complex ways students negotiated qualitatively different assessment experiences, while displaying sophisticated levels of agency, between Chinese and Australian universities. In making sense of the interviews in relation to sustainable assessment, we evoke notions of cultural ignorance to illuminate aspects of a cross-cultural ignorance in teaching and learning practices. In doing so, we argue that conversations about cultural ignorance combined with principles of sustainable assessment can create space to support partners to better plan and coordinate for meaningful assessment and learning experiences for students in cross-cultural articulation programmes.

Transnational articulation programmes are one way China is attempting to advance its higher education (HE) system. We report a study of twelve Chinese students' experiences in two China-Australia 2 + 2 articulation programmes. In our analysis of semi-structured interviews, we use Bourdieu's concepts of field and habitus to understand the impact on the habitus of the students. We report the experiences of the Chinese students in the HE sub-field in Australia. Students were like fish in water with the logics of practice of Chinese HE. In the new sub-field of HE in Australia, their habitus was out of place. This field/habitus mismatch created a field-habitus dissonance that can be productive of change to the habitus. Some in the study strategised to overcome this field-habitus mismatch and to adjust to the logics of the new field. We designate this emergent habitus as an in-between, diasporic cosmopolitan habitus, while others were able to 'compartmentalise' the demands of the new field, indicating durability of habitus.

Chinese universities are actively pursuing cross-border collaborations in the form of transnational higher education programmes. Our study captures the experiences of Chinese students to illuminate how they navigate their learning journeys in a China-Australia articulation programme. To communicate the complexity of learning in modern transnational higher education programmes, we employed activity theory as the theoretical framework to explore cross-cultural contradictions shaping students' experiences of learning. Assessment, programme rules, teaching strategies, and class and campus settings created contradictions that students had to negotiate as in-between learning spaces. We argue that cross-system contradictions play important roles in transnational higher education programmes. Therefore, instead of seeking to eliminate these contradictions or smooth cross-educational differences, these contradictions should be leveraged as learning opportunities to enrich transnational higher education programmes.

Set against globalization and as an expression of it, transnational higher education (TNHE) has become an important part of the Chinese educational higher education (HE) system. Research has widely investigated macro topics, for example, policy and developmental history of Chinese HE. However, limited studies have explored Chinese students' learning experiences in TNHE, especially in 2+2 articulation programs. This study aimed to investigate this under-researched topic and interviewed twelve Chinese students who studied in China-Australia 2+2 articulation programs. Based on analysis of students' learning narratives from the theoretical perspectives of diaspora and space and place, this research found that the 2+2 setting created an in-between or third learning space for students, many of whom became in-between learners. The contours of such space were shaped by several cross-system academic differences in teaching, assessment, usage of internet-based technology and university culture. This positions 2+2 program students in a unique, in-between learning pathway that demands constant negotiations between different HE systems and cultures. These academic differences indicated that articulations between Chinese and Australian universities in such programs may still be only on a surface level.