During a period of unprecedented rapid urbanisation and social transformation in China, this thesis considers the children of internal rural migrants and their access to compulsory education in the regions where they settle. There are currently 38 million such children. Institutional and systemic challenges often bar them from receiving an education of adequate quality, equal to that of their peers. The thesis reviews the legal and regulatory framework covering childrens’ right to education at both international and national domestic levels. It then describes the actual experience of internal migrant children attempting to access schools, and analyses the main factors barring them from the education they are entitled to. These barriers are categorised in a ‘4-A’ conceptual framework – Availability, Accessibility, Acceptability, Adaptability. The research draws on a range of secondary data, supplemented by interviews conducted with personnel engaged in education in Beijing. The main findings are that, though the legal framework of rights is generally sufficient, inadequate institutional and normative arrangements and lack of government accountability (at all levels) work together to hinder proper implementation of relevant laws and regulations. The problem is exacerbated by the institutional barrier of hukou-based enrolment and registration, and deepened even further by the current cadre and local governance arrangements, with the information asymmetry they engender. The thesis concludes that, at central, provincial and municipal levels, adequate funding for the education of migrant children must be assured, especially in the dense receiving regions. A new enrolment system is required based on a child’s current place of residence. Finally, a reform of the current civil service and cadre management systems is needed, with a move away from current growth-oriented development strategies that impose policy burdens and subordinate the children’s good to the pursuit of economic targets.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 356-371).

This research analyses the expansion and transformation of higher education in Asia, focusing in particular on Chinese universities. It shows the rising of the so-­‐‑ called global university, that is, above all, an inclusive process which makes academic knowledge production something heterogeneous, complex and composite – characterised by different actors both private and public, institutional and non-­‐‑institutional. The global university is a point of multiplicity that places our view in the midst of the transformation of educational policies and knowledge taken as whole. It reveals a ‘global knowledge order’ parallel to a ‘new international division of labour’, where the higher education is becoming an important device in the filtering, restriction, and return of population and skilled workers around a whole set of internal national/transnational borders based on knowledge. Developing the concepts of stratification and differentiation, I investigate how the transformation of the educational system brings out and multiplies, rather than mitigates, the differences between universities, while this same segmentation refers to an original and powerful method of management of the increasingly qualified workforce. Higher education and its internationalization nowadays is an important dispositive to segment population within globalization, reconfigures hierarchies and manages the complex displacement of the present having the same force (or even more) as those of gender and race. Moreover, the Global University represents the most interesting terrain to observe the development of an original measurement of labour in its metamorphosis and the value form in cognitive capitalism. The growing intra-­‐‑regional mobility in Asia and the internationalisation of higher education characterise the innovative cartography of the present, wherein knowledge production becomes spatially dispersed and globally integrated. Knowledge, geographically embedded, defines the order of the current post-­‐‑ colonial space, while the Global University describes not only this kind of order, but also how this imbalance is used by the skilled workforce to survive in the local labour market.

This thesis will consider how the multidimensional public interest concept at once informs development of Chinese copyright law and also limits it. Since 1990 China has awarded copyright - individual rights - but also provides for public, non-criminal enforcement. Bowing to pressures of development, globalisation and participation in a world economy, the public interest is leaving copyright. But at the same time, as a socialist country, placing the common ahead of the individual interest, the public interest also constitutes a phenomenological tool with which to limit copyright. The tensions are further exacerbated by the rise of the Internet, which has had major social and economic impact on China, and also raise problems for Chinese copyright law, of which selected aspects will be discussed in comparison with those in the United Kingdom and the United States. The thesis consists of an introduction and a conclusion, together with six chapters: a historical background of legal culture and the rise of the Internet in China; an examination on copyright law and the different aspects of the public interest; discussions on the Chinese system of copyright protection with a focus on the administrative copyright enforcement, and topical copyright issues arising within education, library and archives sectors on the ground of the multidimensional public interest.

稿本(電腦打印本) / Thesis (M.A.)--香港中文大學. / Gao ben (dian nao da yin ben) / Includes bibliographical references. / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue. / Chapter 第一章 --- 引言 --- p.1 / Chapter 第二章 --- 文獻回顧 --- p.8 / Chapter 第三章 --- 硏究方法 --- p.56 / Chapter 第四章 --- 姑婆（191´4ؤ ) / 貫徹「做到老、學到老」的信念 --- p.78 / Chapter 第五章 --- 鍾婆婆（192´1ؤ ) / 英雄無用武之地的遺憾 --- p.106 / Chapter 第六章 --- 梁婆婆（192´2ؤ ) / 在兩次婚姻失敗中求存 --- p.135 / Chapter 第七章 --- 李伯母（192´1ؤ ) / 一生篤信基督信仰 --- p.163 / Chapter 第八章 --- 討論 --- p.207 / Chapter 附錄一 --- 區婆婆（1906 226}0ؤ ) / 一位富家小姐的生活 --- p.226 / Chapter 附錄二 --- 蔡婆婆（190´2ؤ ) / 一位「妹仔」的生活 --- p.245 / 註釋 / 書目

Teamwork skills have been recognised as one of the key skills required for engineering graduates by industries world-wide, including in China. However, very little work on teamwork teaching has been done in the Chinese context, especially in an academic setting. This context is important as the approach to teamwork is very different in China, but effective teamwork is essential for successful engineering projects. This work researches effective ways to teach technical teamwork skills to large cohorts of engineering students in China. Research is performed in a joint Sino-British bachelor degree programme in China, and the participants are all Chinese engineering students. This work researched the applicability of successful cooperative learning practices from the West to China, by implementing them into a Personal Development Plan module that takes team working as one of its key teaching objectives. It employed quantitative statistical methods to compare different group forming methods, analyse the correlation between team performance and academic performance, and test the validity and reliability of peer rating. The effectiveness of the practice was evaluated based on the qualitative open-ended results, and the cultural appropriateness of the practice was discussed. An MBTI test was done to the students, and it was found higher frequencies of Feeling over Thinking, and Judging over Perceiving. This study also investigated the perspectives of the Chinese engineering students on team working and the way they prefer to learn. For the first time it attempted to put some tests in the group project of a technical module. This work has given a new understanding on how Chinese engineering students react in a cooperative learning practice and their perspectives on teamwork learning. It was found the inherited practices and cultural norms have a big influence on team behaviour, and there is a gap between the declarative knowledge and the skill-based outcomes. In conclusion the cooperative learning practice is generally effective leading to an improved cultural appropriated approach to teamwork teaching being proposed.

This study aims to enrich existing local sociological literatures on Mainland new arrivals by exploring the assimilation of their children, including 1.5 generation born in Mainland China and second generation born in Hong Kong. In particular, it focuses on the everyday schooling experiences of children of Mainland new arrivals, such as their learning experiences, their relationship with school or teachers, and their everyday communication with peers. Combining Michele Lamont's concept of boundary and Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of field and capitals with contemporary assimilation theories in the U.S., this study conceptualizes assimilation as a multidimensional process through which migrants and their subsequent generations use different available strategies and capitals to adopt, negotiate, and draw boundaries in various social fields in order to be recognized members of the host community they are living in. Drawing on 11 in-depth interviews with children of Mainland new arrivals studying in secondary school, this study finds that, contrary to the oppressive experiences of first generation Mainland new arrivals especially mothers, second / 1.5 generations have more room or structurally enabled agency to negotiate rather than simply adopt boundaries defining "us" and "other" in the school context. This can be seen, for example, when second and 1.5 generation students alike actively use and modify social meanings represented in cultural products such as electronic games and TV programs to draw boundaries to build and sustain peer relationship in school.

Fine-tuning Medium of Instruction (FTMOI) policy was introduced in 2010 after more than ten years of compulsory Chinese as the instructional medium for junior secondary education. Research results have proved that learning through first language Chinese does not necessarily guarantee better academic performance. Instead, the rigid compulsory Chinese medium of instruction policy led to a general decline in English standards. This alarms most students and parents in several regards. First, the lack of opportunities to the exposure of English affects the build-up of the English abilities for most students. Second, the declining English standards can potentially affect the chance of students being admitted into university as English is a prerequisite for further education in Hong Kong or other places of the world. Declining English standards also weakens the competitiveness of Hong Kong as a world financial center. Hong Kong has a strong bilingual tradition where most people can benefit from the trade and businesses. With strong demand for English in all sectors, the Education Bureau finally proposed a more flexible medium of instruction policy aiming to cater for the language needs of the students as well as their bilingual development. This study aims to investigate the views and attitudes of principals, teachers and students towards the Fine-tuning Medium of Instruction policy. Special focuses were given to investigate the strategies employed by teachers and students as well as the measures taken by the schools for FTMOI implementation. Two government-aided schools were selected to participate in this study. Based on the student intake of the year, the two schools were approved by the Education Bureau to arrange English-medium classes. The change of medium of instruction from Chinese medium (CMI) to English medium (EMI) is under a six-year review cycle. In this study, a Convergent Mixed Methods Design has been adopted to explore the issue regarding teaching and learning under FTMOI. The quantitative part of the research includes the study of the surveys in reflecting the views and attitudes of all stakeholders (Principals, teachers and students) towards FTMOI. Comparison has been made between the EMI and partial-EMI students within schools. Special attention is given to the strategies employed by teachers and students through interviews and lesson observation, the qualitative part of the study. Significance of the study is reported. Results indicated that most stakeholders (principals, teachers and students) welcomed the Fine-tuning Medium of Instruction policy (FTMOI) despite diverse views observed when conducting interviews. Groups of strategies used by teachers were explored, categorized and analyzed how they played the role to help bridge both knowledge and language gaps of students when teaching was conducted through a second language. A detailed record of the strategies used by teachers and students helped uncover the complication of teaching content-based subject through English. The results of this study should provide more insights for further investigation concerning English-medium teaching. Investigating the FTMOI implementation, not only does this study fill the knowledge gap of exploring the pedagogical insights regarding learning through a second language, but it also helps to inform policy-makers the perspectives of teaching and learning in bilingual context while providing solutions to the strategy use of teaching content-based subjects through English in achieving better learning outcomes, both in terms of content knowledge and English. Further exploration of enhancing teaching and learning through a second language is worth to be discussed in this research paper.

In shaping Hong Kong into an international education hub and in offering hope to youth and the promise of social mobility, talent development is a major priority of the Hong Kong Government. Since the 2000s, associate degrees (ADs) have been mandated to fulfill this promise through increasing higher education access - that is, to raise the post-secondary education participation rate to 60% or above. Given the mandate and insufficient genuine governmental support, this thesis argues that AD students of the self-financed sector experience precarity beyond education, underpinned by higher education marketization and chronopolitics. Drawing upon geography of precarity and life course studies, and using a mixed method of data collection including interviews, group discussions, diary studies, social media and participant observation, and grounded theory, the research explores the AD youth cohort's multidimensional everyday life precarity. This thesis builds a 'precarity over the life course' conceptual framework that can contribute to the geographies of higher education and wider research fields such as eldercare.

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy