Higher Education in Hong Kong: Present and Future

Higher Education in Hong Kong: Present and Future  

Speakers:

Professor William Yat Wai Lo

Durham University

Professor Cora Lingling Xu

Durham University

Chair:

Professor Hugo Horta

The University of Hong Kong

Professor Gerard A. Postiglione

The University of Hong Kong

Date: December 10, 2025 (Wednesday)

Time: 5:00 pm - 6:15 pm (HKT) / 9:00 am - 10:15 am (BST)

Mode: Online via Zoom

Language: English

Registration: https://hku.zoom.us/meeting/register/chbJdi72SjqidurqCxYASQ

This seminar examines key questions shaping the future of higher education in Hong Kong. It explores how universities can maintain inclusive campus experiences amid the expansion of non-local student enrolments; what models of internationalisation might guide Hong Kong’s higher education as it repositions itself within the Greater Bay Area and global networks; and how regional integration and evolving policy priorities may transform university governance. The discussion brings together perspectives on current developments and future trajectories for Hong Kong’s higher education system.    

About the Speaker

William Yat Wai Lo is an Associate Professor and Deputy Director of Research in the School of Education at Durham University. His research focuses on higher education as well as comparative and international education, with an emphasis on East Asia. His forthcoming book, The Periphery as the Centre: Higher Education Development and University Governance in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan (Springer), offers a comparative analysis of how colonial legacies, cultural hybridity, and national integration shape university governance in postcolonial Chinese societies.

Cora Lingling Xu is Associate Professor in the School of Education at Durham University, UK. She is a sociologist interested in education mobilities and social inequalities. Her book ‘The Time Inheritors: How Time Inequalities Shape Higher Education Mobility in China’ (SUNY Press, 2025) reveals the role of time in shaping how students navigate rural-to-urban, cross-border, and transnational education within and beyond China.

All are welcome!