Research Projects

Generative AI (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT are increasingly used by university students worldwide to help with their assessment tasks. This presents unprecedented challenges for teachers to make judgements on various difficult issues – for example, how should teachers judge students' work that has been partially or fully enhanced by GenAI? Do students who complete their work without GenAI assistance deserve a higher grade?

These questions point to an urgent need to support teachers in their evaluative judgement – i.e., the process through which teachers assess the quality of students' work – in an AI-mediated assessment landscape. Developing such support necessitates an in-depth understanding of the varying practices and concerns teachers face in their evaluative judgement, which has not yet been captured in empirical research.

Therefore, this project proposes three main objectives:

(1) To explore how teachers make evaluative judgement of students' work that may to varying degrees be mediated by GenAI;

(2) To identify the key factors that shape different teacher evaluative judgement;

(3) To generate preliminary insights into the impact of teacher evaluative judgement on students' interaction with GenAI.

Learning Citizenship Values in Chinese Universities: A Role for International Students in Promoting Chinese Values Globally

The Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS) is a flagship higher education hub policy to attract the “best and brightest students” globally to pursue a PhD in Hong Kong’s universities. However, no empirical research has been undertaken into any aspect of the scheme, which has strategic importance in meeting multiple policy objectives: developing the higher education sector in Hong Kong; improving the global standing of Hong Kong’s universities; enhancing the talent pool for the labour force; and bolstering the image of Hong Kong as a cosmopolitan city. More generally, research on mobile students in Hong Kong remains limited, with most studies on international students focused on those in the Anglophone West.

The current project is the first empirical investigation of HKPFS awardees. From August 2024 to July 2025, we will conduct a three-phase sequential mixed method study. Phase one will involve a questionnaire survey (n=250) to investigate the motivations of non-local HKPFS awardees (from Mainland China and elsewhere) to pursue a PhD in Hong Kong, their experiences as PhD students in Hong Kong, and their post-graduation mobility and career plans. In phase two, we will conduct in-depth interviews with a subset of the respondents (n=50) to gather a more comprehensive understanding of their background, experiences, and post-graduation intentions. In phase three, we will conduct in-depth interviews with HKPFS graduates (n=50) to investigate how a Hong Kong PhD shaped career opportunities and outcomes over the long term. The team will also conduct a smaller-scale supplementary project, covering the same three phases, with non-local Economic and Social Research Council-funded PhD students at the University of Glasgow to provide an international comparative case.

We apply two analytical perspectives that build on our earlier work (e.g., Wright & Mulvey, 2022) by extending concepts from Bourdieu’s logic of practice: “promised capitals” and the “global field of higher education”. These concepts aid in illuminating HKPFS awardees’ perspectives on the position of Hong Kong as a doctoral study destination in the global higher education landscape, and on the value of a Hong Kong PhD as it relates to accumulating institutionalised cultural capital (i.e., credentials), embodied cultural capital (i.e., knowledge, skills, dispositions), and social capital (i.e., networks) for careers.