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Purpose: This article provides a policy review of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) development strategies and their relevance to higher education. Design/Approach/Methods: This article reviews key GBA policies adopted by the central government of China and interprets higher education cooperation policies at provincial and national levels before discussing the opportunities and challenges for higher education. Findings: The GBA Development Strategy aims to build an integrated, innovative, and internationalized economy. It presents an opportunity for universities to attract new funding opportunities as well as to prepare graduates to play a key role in the GBA. The shift toward a high-tech service-led economy would hinge upon creating an effective partnerships platform between industry and higher education institutions. To do so would require greater institutional and professional autonomy for the academic research enterprises. There is also a need for evidence-based policies by the Central and GBA regional governments. Originality/Value: The article examines the state of the relationship between GBA strategies and higher education cooperation. It can be used to guide policies to promote higher education cooperation in the GBA in a more integrated, innovative, and internationalized way.

For more than a century, whether or not the research-teaching nexus exists has remained an intensely debated issue in the global academy at both the conceptual and empirical levels. Situating teaching styles within the context of teaching, conceptualizing research agendas as a dimension of research, and using academic self-efficacy as a mediator, the present study empirically investigated the research-teaching nexus. Participants were 256 academics in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields from all of the eight institutions funded by the University Grants Committee in Hong Kong. In the context of participating in the "Academic Profession in the Knowledge-based Society" (APIKS) international survey between late 2017 and early 2018, the participants responded to a short version of the Multi-Dimensional Research Agendas Inventory, a short version of the Research-Teaching Efficacy Inventory, and two scales from the Thinking Styles in Teaching Inventory. Results showed that academics' research agendas statistically predicted their teaching styles -- after age, gender, academic rank, and institutional ranking were considered. Furthermore, academic self-efficacy, especially research efficacy, provided a pathway from research agendas to one of the two teaching styles examined. Limitations and theoretical contributions of the research are discussed; and practical implications of the research findings are proposed for academics in STEM fields and for university senior managers.

This study explored factors that influence academics to collaborate in research with their doctoral students. It focused on Hong Kong academics, using data from the Academic Profession in Knowledge Society survey conducted in 2017-2018. The study found that academics' research collaboration with doctoral students is influenced by several factors, including research and teaching styles and institutional conditions. Specifically, those academics whose research agendas were characterised by "discovery" and "collaboration" were more likely to report working with their doctoral students, whereas those whose research agendas focused more on "convergence" were less likely to do so. The more "legislative" the academics' teaching style was, the less they collaborated with their doctoral students. Independence in research and institutional expectations of external funding increased the propensity to collaborate with doctoral students. Academics in the humanities were found to collaborate less with their doctoral students than those in other disciplines. The study suggests that the scholarly preference and styles of the academics, as well as their disciplinary and institutional backgrounds, need to be considered to improve research collaboration between academics and their doctoral students.

Amongst all jurisdictions, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China has been one of the most effective in limiting cases of COVID-19, despite being one of the first places to be affected by the pandemic in early 2020. In the months since the first case was confirmed, COVID-19 has affected all aspects of Hong Kong society, including the higher education sector. In this collective reflective essay, we describe the effects of these unexpected external events on academics' lives and the responses of higher education institutions. Specifically, we address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on academics, their professional relationships, institutional frameworks, and Hong Kong's higher education sector as a whole. We conclude that the most significant effect of the pandemic is "uncertainty," together with new realities expressed in sayings such as 'living with Zoom, learning from webinars'; 'you will be informed "in due course"', stay calm "until further notice"'; and 'people are stuck, but business is on steroids'. The essay further describes a three-pronged institutional reaction to the pandemic, focused on "control," "support," and "positioning." It concludes with critical views on the way 'useful' knowledge in today's higher education is defined and how concepts and practices have been challenged during the pandemic.

Recent developments in higher education have placed greater emphasis on performance and accountability and raised concerns about increasing levels of stress among academics. Stress not only influences academic productivity but may also affect institutional commitment, which is key to guaranteeing academics' organisational stability, identity and performance at the university. This study examines how the stress of academics working in Hong Kong, which has a highly competitive and performativity oriented higher education system, relates to an institutional commitment to their universities. Through the use of a methodology that handles endogeneity bias, this relationship was analysed using socio-demographic data, information on characteristics of the institutional environment, and academic-work-related data from the Academic Profession in Knowledge Society (APIKS) questionnaire conducted in Hong Kong in 2017/2018. The main finding of this study is that the more the job becomes a strain, the greater the academic's institutional commitment to the university. We argue that stress was positively associated with greater institutional commitment due to Hong Kong's competitive working culture, as no statistically significant differences in stress and institutional commitment were found among those in different academic fields of knowledge and universities. Analysis of determinants of stress and institutional commitment showed that independence in research, interest in current work, availability of career opportunities, and collegial decision-making reduced stress and increased institutional commitment. Conversely, pressure to obtain external funding and excessive administrative work increase stress and reduce institutional commitment. Based on these findings, universities should institute balanced policies that promote research autonomy, collegiality and flexible career opportunities in academic work, whilst designing new ways to more congenially integrate the ubiquitous demand for external funding into academic life, and minimising administrative procedures which are not attuned with creative academic environments.

This research pioneered the investigation of the role of doctoral students' thinking styles in their program satisfaction and perceived intellectual competence. Participants were 285 STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) students in Hong Kong. Results showed that students' thinking styles as measured by the Thinking Styles Inventory--Revised II (Sternberg, Wagner, & Zhang, 2007) statistically significantly predicted their program satisfaction and perceived intellectual competence as assessed by two of the scales in the newly constructed Graduate Student Survey (Shin et al., 2015)--beyond their gender, program year, and academic discipline. Findings have brought new insights into the assessment of doctoral students' program satisfaction and perceived intellectual competence. At the same time, findings have contributed to the literature on intellectual styles and that on doctoral education in STEM fields. Practical implications of the findings are proposed for STEM doctoral students in understanding their own ways of thinking and program experiences and outcomes, as well as for academics and senior managers in their efforts to enhance students' access to positive program experiences and outcomes.

Technological acceleration, increased global engagement, and national aspirations to restructure its economy and promote innovation have persuaded China to intensify an emphasis on skills acquisition through technical-vocational education and training (TVET). After a background of China's experience, this paper examines the case of Gansu, the poorest province, and how the German Two Track TVET model can help address six of Gansu key difficulties, including cooperation with enterprises, internships, graduate employment, teacher upgrading, quality standards, and poverty alleviation. Among the lessons for Gansu are incentives for enterprises, systematic selection and contract protection for internships, employment stability and professional development, examination boards and skill certification of graduates, and information systems with guidance for underserved groups.

East Asian higher education is experiencing a massive growth in doctoral education with the world-class university initiatives. The growth of doctoral education in the region is remarkable especially as seen in the Chinese system which became positioned as the world's second largest doctoral degree-granting system. Yet, there are growing issues in doctoral education related to system reform, graduate employment in a changing job market, program quality, research funding, and even the identity of doctoral education (professional training vs. training next generation scholars). These are globally emerging issues for policy makers and higher education scholars. This article will encourage academic discussions on the challenges and global trends in doctoral education from the comparative perspective of Anglo-American and European systems.

New preferential policies in China promise to increase the number of rural students entering top-tier universities, where there is a wider path to a higher social status. While a substantial body of literature has investigated rural students' trajectories to university, there is a dearth of systematic empirical studies on the academic success of rural students in colleges and universities. This study seeks to address this gap by examining the academic achievement of representative samples of students entering an elite university in China, including their place of origin, family background, school experience, and the characteristics that align with their academic performance. The data suggest no significant difference in academic performance obtained by urban and rural students with respect to average grade point average (over four years). It also suggests that fathers' occupations may not be associated with the academic achievements of students from different families. However, the data suggest a relatively clear school effect on the academic performance of students at University S. The study enriches the discussions of the inequality issue in China's higher education sector. It also enriches the literature in sociology of education by looking at the relative strength of the relationship between the possible causes and outcomes of schooling.

This research investigated the statistical predictive power of organisational commitments for academics' teaching approaches. Participants were 268 academics working in six elite universities in Beijing, mainland China. Results showed that academics' organisational commitments as measured by the Organisational Commitment Inventory significantly predicted their teaching approaches as assessed by the Approaches to Teaching Inventory--beyond gender, age, taught academic discipline, academic rank and type of institution. Limitations and theoretical contributions of the study are noted; and practical implications of the findings are discussed in relation to academics and university senior managers.

The authors examine the special case of Hong Kong higher education's institutional partnerships in the Chinese mainland. After noting the rise of cross-system university partnership in Asia, it provides a neoinstitutional perspective on the differences between the two China higher education systems. Finally, a case study of the experience of the longest-running Hong Kong campus partnership on the Chinese mainland is discussed and analyzed. Results show that while adaptations are required to sustain the partnership, the degree of autonomy has grown over time.

This study examines the differential patterns of school success of rural students as a result of China's market transition. The process dimension, how families from different social backgrounds within rural society get involved in rural schooling and how this contributes to the inequality of school success within rural society, is investigated. The data analysis suggests that schools as institutions provide few official channels for rural parents to participate in rural schools and help their children to achieve school success. This raises the importance of families' strategic initiatives to employ "guanxi" within family, community and between school and family. These make the point that "guanxi" and their employment have become an important mechanism for social inclusion and exclusion in the competition for advantages in school success in post-socialist China.