Despite existing empirical work that explores the multiple ways in which students develop a sense of belonging in higher education, there is a dearth of comparative research about the extent to which the concepts of community and belonging are central to what it means to be a student and how students in different national contexts (beyond…

Psychological studies on international research students' resilience to mental distress have attracted much scholarly attention. Yet, sociological inquiries into resilience to 'invisible' pressures such as power imbalances remain limited. Drawing insights from Bourdieu's relational sociology, we recast the psychology of resilience to adversities…

University students' collaborative learning, particularly groupwork, has been more often investigated in Western settings than in countries that have borrowed this Western pedagogy. This qualitative study re-examines Chinese university students' groupwork responses regarding their expectations, attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors. Their…

An increasing number of international students pursue doctoral studies in China, a non-traditional learning destination compared with English-dominated Western countries. Despite considerable research on the challenges doctoral students face when writing theses in English in Western countries, relatively few studies have explored comparable issues…

The post-pandemic era might witness a shifting landscape of international higher education, partially reflected by a restructuring of international student mobility (ISM) patterns. Notably, there is a nascent trend of Chinese returnees with degrees from Anglo-American universities pursuing doctoral studies at home. Previous research concentrates…