Login
Register

Tag: Hong Kong

34 EdUHK scholars named by Stanford University in world’s top 2% scientists

Posted on by eduhk

Thirty-four scholars of The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) were named among the top 2% most-cited scientists in the world, in an annual list released by Stanford University.

Among them were President Professor Stephen Cheung Yan-leung, Vice President (Academic) and Provost Professor John Lee Chi-kin, Vice President (Research and Development) Professor Chetwyn Chan Che-hin, Research Chair Professor of Geography and Environmental Science Professor Jim Chi-yung, and Advisor (Environmental Science) Professor Wong Ming-hung.

Compiled by a research team at Stanford University, the list ranked top scientists from a wide range of fields based on their career-long citation impact or single-year citation impact in 2021. The inclusion of EdUHK scholars represents the global recognition and the significant impact of their research output.

EdUHK President Professor Cheung was listed in the field of finance under the category of career-long impact. So were Professor John Lee* and Professor Chetwyn Chan, who were included in the fields of education and rehabilitation. Professor Wong Ming-hung from the Department of Science and Environmental Studies also ranked 6th out of over 100,000 scholars in environmental science.

In terms of single year impact, Chair Professor of Psychology and Gerontology Professor Cheng Sheung-tak and Chair Professor of Social Policy Professor Chou Kee-lee ranked 9th and 19th respectively, in gerontology.

Congratulating the EdUHK team, Professor Cheung said, “I am pleased that under our ‘Education-plus’ approach, we have successfully broadened our academic scope beyond our traditional strength in teacher education. Inclusion in the top 2% list attests to the solid foundation laid over the years, which has led to growing academic strengths in the fields of energy, environmental studies, marine biology and hydrobiology, as well as political science and public administration.”

For eight consecutive years, EdUHK has been ranked among the top three in Asia and the top 20 in the world in education, according to the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings. The University’s research output was also judged as “World Leading” or “Internationally Excellent” in the latest Research Assessment Exercise conducted by the University Grants Committee. The latest accolade came from the 7th International Invention Innovation Competition in Canada (iCAN) in 2022, in which the University won a record high of 26 awards since its first participation.

* Professor John Lee will be EdUHK President next September

HKBU-led research identifies Salvia miltiorrhiza extract as potential preventive agent for gastric cancer induced by bile reflux

Posted on by HKBUCPRO

Research led by the School of Chinese Medicine at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has identified cryptotanshinone, a compound extracted from the Chinese herbal medicine Salvia miltiorrhiza, with the potential for the treatment and prevention of gastric cancer associated with bile reflux. The researchers unveiled the mechanism of how bile reflux induces gastritis and gastric cancer. They explained that refluxed bile acids (BAs) lead to the proliferation of pro-inflammation bacteria that promote gastric carcinogenesis, the formation of cancer.

The research findings have been published in the international scientific journal Advanced Science.

Role of bile reflux in gastric cancer unclear

Bile, secreted by the liver, is stored in the gallbladder and is released to the duodenum to help digest fat. When the pylorus connecting the stomach and the duodenum is damaged or fails to work properly, bile in the duodenum can enter the stomach, causing gastritis. People with stomach surgery complications, peptic ulcers or gallbladder removal surgery have higher risks of bile reflux. However, the mechanism of how bile reflux induces gastric carcinogenesis remains unclear.

Professor Jia Wei, Associate Dean (International Collaboration) of Chinese Medicine and Cheung On Tak Endowed Professor in Chinese Medicine at HKBU, in collaboration with researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People’s Hospital, conducted a study on how bile reflux induces gastric carcinogenesis, and looked for new prevention and therapeutic approaches.

Professor Jia said: “We unveiled for the first time the underlying mechanism by which bile reflux promoted the development of gastric carcinogenesis. It offers important clinical insights on the development of novel prevention and therapeutic approaches for the disease. Based on the newly discovered mechanism, we identified cryptotanshinone as a potential Chinese medicine-based pharmaceutic agent for the prevention and treatment of gastric carcinogenesis due to bile reflux.”

Bile reflux alters gastric environment

The research team analysed the gastric juice samples of 50 patients with bile reflux gastritis (BRG group), 50 patients with gastric cancer (GC group) and 45 subjects in the control group using chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques. It was found that the amounts of BAs, the major component of bile, in the gastric juice samples of BRG and GC groups are significantly higher than in the control group. Furthermore, the acidities of gastric juice samples of the BRG group (pH value about 3.5) and the GC group (pH value about 4) are drastically lower than in the control group (pH value about 2).

The phenomenon is explained by the fact that BAs are weak acids compared with strong gastric acid, and their influx into the stomach changed the gastric environment by upsetting the normal acid-base balance of the gastric juice. Further investigation found that a specific type of BA, called taurodeoxycholic acid (TDCA), showed a strong positive correlation with pH value of gastric juice samples of the BRG and GC groups.

Previous studies showed that bile reflux is closely related to chronic gastric inflammation and gastric carcinogenesis. The researchers thus examined the concentrations of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a pro-inflammation cytokine, in the gastric juice of the 145 subjects above, and found that the BRG and GC groups have LPS concentrations significantly higher than those of the control group.

Change in microbiota associates with gastric carcinogenesis

As LPS is produced and found in the outer membrane of certain kinds of bacteria, the researchers applied gene sequencing and other techniques and confirmed that LPS-producing bacteria are significantly more abundant in the gastric juice of BRG and CG groups compared to the control group. Among these LPS-producing bacteria, a species called P. melaninogenica had the highest relative abundance.

From these experimental results, it is suggested that bile reflux induces significant changes in the gastric environment, alters the gastric microbiota, and results in the development of gastritis and gastric carcinogenesis. The hypothesis was tested with a series of in vitro and in vivo experiments in mice, which confirmed that application of TDCA and LPS promotes gastric epithelial cell proliferation, and induces gastric inflammation. Cellular and molecular analysis revealed that P. melaninogenica promoted gastric inflammation in mice by activating the IL-6/JAK1/STAT3 pathway, a chain of interactions between proteins in a cell involved in processes such as immunity, cell division, cell death, and tumour formation.

Cryptotanshinone as potential pharmaceutic agent

After unveiling the mechanism of bile reflux-induced gastric cancer, the researchers turned to explore a corresponding preventive and therapeutic approach. They focused on cryptotanshinone, a bioactive compound isolated from the roots of Salvia miltiorrhiza, which is a Chinese herbal medicine that facilitates blood circulation with an anti-inflammatory effect. Cryptotanshinone is also known as an inhibitor of the STAT3 signaling pathway in cells.

The researchers tested the effects of cryptotanshinone with a bile reflux mouse model developed through surgery. In a group of eight mice without application of cryptotanshinone, three mice developed gastric lesions 50 weeks after surgery. However, in another group of six mice injected with cryptotanshinone, no obvious gastric lesions were observed. The results suggested that cryptotanshinone has abolished the effects of TDCA and LPS in activating the IL-6/JAK1/STAT3 pathway.

“Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that cryptotanshinone is a potential Chinese medicine-based pharmaceutic agent for the prevention and treatment of gastric carcinogenesis due to bile reflux. It provides an alternative strategy for the development of medication which targets on the newly discovered mechanism of how bile reflux induces gastric carcinogenesis,” said Professor Jia.

EdUHK research reveals positive parenting on hand hygiene help reduce kindergarteners’ absenteeism from flu-like illnesses

Posted on by eduhk

Good hand hygiene has been found to be an effective way to prevent the spread of infectious organisms and the most important defence against disease, but studies have shown that many parents have inadequate knowledge, reporting skills, and parenting practices related to seasonal influenza. Previous research has shown a positive relationship between parents’ and children’s health practices. The research by Dr Peggy Or Pui-lai, Assistant Professor at the Department of Health and Physical Education, The Education University of Hong Kong, investigated whether there was any correlation between flu infection among parents and their kindergarten-age children, and the effectiveness of using hand hygiene interventions in kindergartens to lower kindergarten children’s absenteeism attributable to seasonal flu.

Fifteen kindergartens in Hong Kong were randomly selected, from which 58 parents and two grandparents, and their children or grandchildren were invited to participate in the hand-hygiene programme. To support the validity of the study, the WHO hand-hygiene checklist was used to ensure sufficient coverage of the objectives. An infection-control nurse conducted four weekly 45-minute training session for the children and a separate one-hour session for parents. Parents monitored their children for flu symptoms, and the kindergartens monitored their school attendance. To evaluate the effectiveness of the programme, the children and their parents were required to answer 10 true-or-false questions in a questionnaire on hand hygiene knowledge before and after the hand-hygiene programme. A research assistant explained the questions and answers clearly to the children.

The results of the study showed that children with strong parenting and good hand hygiene had fewer recorded signs and symptoms of flu-like illnesses. The absence rates in all participating kindergartens owing to flu decreased from 21.5% to 12% in the three-month study period.

In the hand-hygiene knowledge test, 6.8% of parents correctly answered the question on the seven-step hand hygiene technique before the programme, while 79.5% answered it correctly after the programme. In the hand-hygiene skills test, the parts of the hands that were not properly washed before the intervention were the back of the hands, the back of the fingers, the thumbs and the wrists. After the programme, the percentages of the properly washed areas on both hands increased significantly, in particular the wrists from 0.5% to 82%, and 27% more children showed concern about the hand hygiene behaviour of the people around them, especially their parents’. The children also shared what they had learnt with their parents, and their parents started paying more attention to proper handwashing. This also provided more common topics for conversation between them, resulting in increased communication and closer bonds.

Researchers concluded that the flu infection rate of the parents and their children was significantly correlated with P = .005. The awareness and personal hygiene skills of parents and children were both raised after the programme. The findings supported that positive parenting on hand hygiene helped reduce kindergarteners’ absenteeism from flu-like illnesses.

HKBU research unveils association between plasma metabolites and COVID-19 antibody levels in recovered patients

Posted on by HKBUCPRO

A study led by Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has revealed the association between rapidly fading antibody levels in some recovered COVID-19 patients and a high plasma concentration of a metabolite called glycylproline (gly-pro) and its producing enzyme.

The researchers also found that the application of an inhibiting agent can counteract the activities of gly-pro and its producing enzyme, and this helped to maintain COVID-19 antibody levels in a mouse model. The findings offer important insights that could aid the development of novel therapeutic and vaccination strategies against the virus.

The research results have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a renowned international scientific journal.

Antibody levels drop in some recovered COVID-19 patients

The levels of COVID-19 antibodies among individuals in a community are crucial for herd immunity against the virus. In general, recovered COVID-19 patients have high antibody levels as a result of their natural immune reactions. However, antibody levels in some recovered COVID-19 patients have been seen to drop rapidly over the course of a few weeks, and the underlying mechanism of this phenomenon remains poorly understood.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, research studies have revealed changes in plasma cytokine and metabolite levels in COVID-19 patients. Based on these observations, a research team led by Professor Cai Zongwei, Chair Professor of the Department of Chemistry and Director of the State Key Laboratory of Environmental and Biological Analysis, and Dr Yang Zhu, the first author of this paper and a Research Assistant Professor of the Department of Chemistry at HKBU, investigated how plasma cytokines and metabolites are associated with antibody levels in recovered COVID-19 patients.

Metabolite gly-pro associated with antibody levels

The research team analysed the cytokine and metabolite profiles in the plasma samples of three subject groups. The first group included 17 recovered COVID-19 patients with steady COVID-19 antibody levels; the second group included 30 recovered COVID-19 patients with rapidly fading COVID-19 antibody levels; the third one was a control group comprising 35 individuals who had not been infected with COVID-19.

A series of quantitative computational analyses that involved the use of machine learning techniques were used to compare the levels of different plasma cytokines and metabolites in the three subject groups in relation to their COVID-19 antibody levels. The researchers then compared the two recovered patient groups with the control group, and any cytokines and metabolites with significantly different levels between the two groups and the control group were shortlisted. Among the shortlisted targets, the levels of seven cytokines and 20 metabolites were seen to differ significantly between the two groups of recovered COVID-19 patients.

The researchers then analysed the association between the selected cytokines and metabolites and COVID-19 antibody levels in recovered patients. From the collected data, they concluded that the plasma concentration of the metabolite gly-pro had increased the most in the two recovered patient groups compared with the control group.

Overall, the levels of gly-pro in the recovered patient group with rapidly fading antibody levels were four times higher than the control group, while the levels of gly-pro in the recovered patient group with steady COVID-19 antibody levels were two-and-a-half times higher than the control group. Based on these results, the researchers investigated the relationship between COVID-19 antibody levels in recovered patients and gly-pro, as well as the producing enzyme of gly-pro which is named dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4).

Inhibiting gly-pro maintains steady antibody levels

The research team set up a four-week mouse model experiment to test the hypothesis that high gly-pro levels are associated with a rapid drop in COVID-19 antibody levels in recovered COVID-19 patients. Four groups of 12 mice were injected with the spike protein of the COVID-19 virus. The groups were then respectively treated with: (1) exogenous gly-pro; (2) an inhibitor that blocks the degradation of endogenous gly-pro; (3) exogenous gly-pro and a DPP4 inhibitor (Sitagliptin, which is also an anti-diabetic drug); and (4) saline.

The serum COVID-19 antibody levels in all groups were similar in the first week of the experiment. The antibody levels of the mice in the first group declined after the second week, suggesting that increased gly-pro levels are associated with a decline in COVID-19 antibody levels. The antibody levels of the mice in the second group, who had relatively steady gly-pro levels, also began to decline in the third week. The slower decline in antibody levels in the second group of mice compared to the first group shows that varying amounts of gly-pro are associated with the amount of time a steady antibody level can be maintained.

Meanwhile, the antibody levels of the mice in the third group remained stable throughout the experiment. This shows that when the activities of DPP4 are inhibited, the negative effects of gly-pro can be neutralised, and a steady level of COVID-19 antibodies can be maintained.

New insights for therapeutic and disease control strategies

Professor Cai said: “Effective shield immunity for a community against the spread of COVID-19 is highly dependent on the maintenance of steady antibody levels in individuals. Our experimental results suggest that DPP4 inhibitors can effectively maintain steady antibody levels in COVID-19-infected mice. As a result, our study offers important insights into how we can develop a similar medical approach to maintain COVID-19 antibody levels in humans, which will contribute to the global fight against the pandemic.”

Dr Yang said: “Further studies based on our research findings are warranted to explore the potential in other areas of therapeutic and disease control, especially in terms of other applications. For example, novel strategies may be developed to enhance the efficiency of vaccination in boosting antibody levels in humans, particularly in diabetic patients, a well-known high-risk population for COVID-19.”

EdUHK EdTech innovations win 26 iCAN Awards

Posted on by eduhk

The Education University of Hong Kong received 26 awards at the 7th International Invention Innovation Competition in Canada (iCAN) in 2022, including seven gold medals, three silver, five grand awards and 11 special prizes. It marked a new record high since the University’s first participation in 2018.

Two of the University’s inventions received the Best Invention Awards, including ‘A New Generation of Dissolved Oxygen Sensor Using Replaceable Photo-sensing Film’, which was granted the Top 10 Best Invention Award. The invention was developed by Professor Rudolf Wu Shiu-sun, Advisor (Environmental Science) at the Department of Science and Environmental Studies (SES), and his team. It is a novel device which detects and sends out a permanent record of dissolved oxygen levels using replaceable photo-sensing film. It overcomes the prolonged difficulties of monitoring the marine pollution over large areas of water bodies.

An EdTech invention ‘e-Orch’ developed by Dr Leung Chi-hin, Assistant Professor at the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts (CCA), was awarded the Top 20 Best Invention Award. It is a system consisting of an app and cloud-based software specifically designed for music performance and composition. Integrated with the patented Grid Notation, virtual instruments and AI music generator, the invention makes music education accessible and inclusive.

Congratulating the winners, Professor Chetwyn Chan Che-hin, Vice President (Research and Development), said, “The award-winning innovations cover educational technology, marine conservation, art tech and green construction material, etc. It reflects the broadening scope of our research and knowledge transfer. It is encouraging to see that some of our inventions have been successfully licensed or patented, and are creating a positive impact on society. EdUHK will continue to forge knowledge transfer collaboration with different sectors.”

iCAN is an international competition launched in 2016. This year, the competition received 650 applications from 81 countries and regions. EdUHK’s awarding-winning projects are as follows:

Project: A New Generation of Dissolved Oxygen Sensor Using Replaceable Photo-sensing Film

Principal Investigator: Professor Rudolf Wu Shiu-sun at SES

Award(s): Gold Medal, Top 10 Best Invention Award, Special Award

Project: Reimagining Music Learning with e-Orch

Principal Investigator: Dr Leung Chi-hin at CCA

Award(s): Gold Medal, Top 20 Best Invention Award, Special Award

Project: Upcycling Waste Residuals into Value-added Eco-coasters: From Environmental Facilities to Tables

Principal Investigator: Dr Tsang Yiu-fai at SES

Award(s): Gold Medal, Organizer’s Choice Award, Special Award

Project: Facilitating Emotion Classification Based on Non-Intrusive Learner Data via Deep Neural Networks

Principal Investigator: Dr Zou Di at the Department of English Language Education (ELE)

Award(s): Gold Medal, Jury’s Choice Award, Special Award

Project: Advanced Tai Chi Experience: An Integration of Novel Typefaces and AR Technology

Principal Investigator: Dr Hung Keung at CCA

Award(s): Gold Medal, Two Special Awards

Project: UNISON: Unpaired Cross-lingual Image Captioning

Principal Investigator: Professor Philip Yu Leung-ho at the Department of Mathematics and Information Technology

Award(s): Gold Medal, Special Award

Project: Personalised vocabulary learning system based on artificial intelligence techniques

Principal Investigator: Dr Zou Di at ELE

Award(s): Gold Medal, Special Award

Project: iMaze: A Fun Working Memory Training for Pre-school Children from Low-income Families

Principal Investigator: Dr Kean Poon Kei-yan at the Department of Special Education and Counselling

Award(s): Silver Medal, Best Woman Inventor Award, Special Award

Project: CKC Strokes – An Online Practice Tool for Chinese Strokes Writing

Principal Investigator: Dr Tse Ka-ho at the Department of Chinese Language Studies

Award(s): Silver Medal, Special Award

Project: Smart hands: Are you sure?

Principal Investigator: Dr Peggy Or Pui-lai at the Department of Health and Physical Education

Award(s): Silver Medal, Special Award

World-class research makes LU a leader in global education

Posted on by Editorial Team

Lingnan University, a global leader in quality education and high-impact research, offers a wide range of research postgraduate (RPg) programmes across the arts and humanities, social sciences, science, and business studies. Lingnan provides its students and researchers with generous support which enables them to conduct research and undertake projects with high social relevance and impact.

The research work conducted at Lingnan was classified as “World Leading” and “Internationally Excellent” in the latest Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2020 conducted by the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong. The RAE uses international benchmarks to identify the relative strengths of the city’s public universities. Over 50% of Lingnan’s submitted research output was rated either world leading or internationally excellent. Lingnan was placed first or second in the fields of Accountancy, Sociology and Anthropology, Social Work and Social Policy, and Philosophy, in terms of the percentage of its “World Leading” research work, while 56 percent of the university’s research achieved “Considerable or Outstanding Impact”.

A strong commitment to international collaboration

Lingnan was ranked third globally for “Quality Education” for two consecutive years in the Times Higher Education (THE) University Impact Rankings 2021 and 2022. Furthermore, in the latest QS World University Rankings by Subject 2022, Lingnan showed significant advances in its international academic reputation, with 50% of its academic disciplines improving their positions in the rankings. Over 200 academic staff at Lingnan boast PhDs, and other advanced degrees, from some of the world’s most prestigious universities, including Cambridge, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Edinburgh, Harvard, NUS, Oxford, Peking, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCL, UCLA, and Yale. Building on the diverse range of research interests of faculty members, the University has a strong commitment to developing successful interdisciplinary research, as well as forging international partnerships and collaborative ties. Lingnan also ensures that its research projects inform teaching and knowledge transfer as well as contributing to academia.

Programmes across the arts, business, social sciences, and science

Lingnan offers 27 MPhil and PhD programmes across the arts, business, social sciences, and science disciplines. The University takes a student-centred learning approach, which ensures close and supportive thesis supervision while also encouraging intellectual creativity.

Because of the University’s numerous external partnerships, the options available to postgraduate students extend beyond Lingnan itself. These options include a number of full-time PhD programmes offered in collaboration with universities in Mainland China, including Shenzhen University, South China Normal University, South China University of Technology, and Wuhan University.

Significant opportunities for global exposure

To give student researchers more global exposure, and the opportunity to exchange ideas with other academics, Lingnan organises and takes part in international conferences on topics ranging from the development of higher education in a post-pandemic world to urban governance. The University also hosts seminars which focus on sharing research findings and the exploration of new opportunities for collaboration.

Experiential learning activities, such as sponsored field trips and overseas research visits, are open to all RPg students, regardless of their programmes and background.

For application details, please go to https://ln.edu.hk/rpg/.

HKAPA co-presents Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Greater Bay Area International Music Festival

Posted on by Communications Office

The Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Greater Bay Area International Music Festival was officially launched in September. The Academy joined hands with conservatories, orchestras and universities in the Greater Bay Area to present a variety of music performances online.

The HKSAR 25th Anniversary Celebration Concert presented by the Academy was the first programme of the Festival. Other performances included the Concerto Feast from the Academy’s School of Music faculty members and students, and the School of Dance Summer Performances 2021.

Recorded versions of the HKSAR 25th Anniversary Celebration Concert and School of Dance Summer Performances 2021 are available online. The celebration concert will also be broadcast on RTHK Radio 4 programme “Youth in Harmony” on October 31.

Watch the HKSAR 25th Anniversary Celebration Concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFNcYy0fkT4&t=7s

Watch the School of Dance Summer Performances 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTYfyTrxPxs&t=3s

EdUHK study examines importance of gender-affirming school culture

Posted on by eduhk

Gender nonconforming youth are often subject to bullying and harassment, but the negative effects of this experience are not well understood. Previous studies have found that gender-nonconforming youth are at heightened risk of depression, social withdrawal and avoidance behaviour compared to gender-conforming youth. The association between gender nonconformity and psychological distress has been found to be more common among adolescent boys than girls. Both heterosexual and sexual-minority individuals can be subject to victimisation based on their gender expression, regardless of their actual sexual orientation.

Dr Randolph Chan Chun-ho, Associate Head and Associate Professor at the Department of Special Education and Counselling, The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), conducted a study to determine whether gender nonconformity contributes to peer victimisation in school settings and to identify ways to modify the school environment to protect gender nonconforming youth from victimisation. The study involved 3,020 students in 10 secondary schools in different provinces in the mainland, 51.5% of whom assigned male at birth and 48.5% assigned female at birth. The mean age of the participants was 15.71.

One fifth of the participants (19.6%) said they frequently experienced peer victimisation. The prevalence of peer victimisation was even higher among gender-nonconforming youth (38.5%). The three most common forms were being reminded to watch the way in which they speak or dress, being verbally assaulted or threatened, and being socially excluded or isolated. Gender nonconformity was found to be a risk factor for peer victimisation among youth in the mainland and was associated with heightened levels of school avoidance and symptoms of depression.

Youth assigned male at birth who violated masculine gender roles were found to be more frequently subject to victimisation than youth assigned female at birth who did not adhere to feminine gender roles. In schools with a highly structured and supportive campus climate, gender-nonconforming youth were less likely to experience peer victimisation and internalising problems.

Fostering a respectful, peer-supported, engaging school climate can alleviate the psychosocial difficulties arising from gender nonconformity among students of all genders, the study concluded. Given the prevalence of symptoms of depression in gender-nonconforming youth, mental health care is urgently needed to provide gender-affirming psychological support for this vulnerable population in Chinese education settings.

For details of the research, please visit here.

Impactful research into the changing world of work

Posted on by Editorial Team

The quiet ambition of every academic is to have an impact, whether through teaching, research, publications, or involvement in public debate and discourse.

For that to happen, though, they also need the support and guidance of an institution which can provide opportunities and bring breakthrough work to the attention of a wider international audience.

Over the years, Lingnan University in Hong Kong has proved adept at doing just that, as confirmed by two significant metrics. One is the impressive number of citations, accolades and invitations its professors receive to speak at influential symposia and conferences. Another is the university’s consistently high position in comparative rankings of tertiary institutions in Asia and around the world.

Indeed, the mid-2022 Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings placed Lingnan third in the world for “quality education”. Within the Greater China region, it was in the top ten for overall impact and sixth for work related to promoting “decent work and economic growth”, which is one of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This particular SDG aims to facilitate sustainable and inclusive local economies, where people have decent job opportunities, fair pay, and the chance to create better lives for themselves and their families.

To that end, Lingnan has adopted governance practices to ensure staff well-being and prepare graduates for the world of work. And it is supporting important research into current economic models and modern workplace conditions.

The topics range from corporate leadership, psychological health, labour welfare and the loss traditional jobs to income inequality and the poverty trap. This allows scholars to engage with society, inspire knowledge transfer, and instigate real change.

For instance, from Lingnan’s Department of Management, Wang Nan is now exploring “Within-person dynamics of employee performance after disruption events”, something especially relevant after Covid-19. Chen Tingting is researching the phenomenon of employee silence at work plus what it means for bosses, colleagues and team productivity. And Yolanda Li Na is investigating the internet’s impact on employees’ daily work and outcomes, as well as how delivery couriers react to social media posts and frequent mistreatment by customers.

Exemplifying the interdisciplinary nature of much Lingnan research, Francis Cheung Yue Lok of the Department of Applied Psychology is conducting a pilot study on occupational health differences between locals and new migrants from mainland China. A team at the Department of Economics is asking if Hong Kong’s current competition policy is ready for increasing economic integration with the Greater Bay Area. And Pun Ngai of the Department of Cultural Studies is spearheading a project on “Migration, mobility and labour”.

Its objective is to assess labour conditions and measures in place to protect the interests of migrant workers in mainland China, with a special focus on newer sectors of the economy such as logistics, high-speed rail services, and online e-commerce platforms. The findings will help in understanding China’s new working class in the context of the country’s evolving “infrastructural capitalism”.

All the latest Lingnan University publications related to stress management, psychological health, working conditions, leadership and labour welfare can be found in the webpage.

EdUHK research on resistance as form of resilience in sexual, gender minorities

Posted on by eduhk

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals across the globe experience prejudice, discrimination, hate crimes, and many other forms of victimisation. As a fundamental means for transforming and advancing the conditions of LGBT individuals, collective action has gained increasing attention in research, policy and practice over the past decade. It has been used to advocate for LGBT rights, such as anti-discrimination laws, marriage equality, adoption and parenting, and legal recognition of gender. While collective action is influential in driving public awareness and policy changes, little is known about the psychological effects on individuals undertaking collective action.

The study by Dr Randolph Chan Chun-ho, Associate Professor at the Department of Special Education and Counselling, The Education University of Hong Kong, examined how different types of collective action moderate the negative relationship between perceived discrimination and mental health. The aims of the study were (1) to adopt an inductive approach to developing a scale for measuring collective action for LGBT rights in less democratic societies, (2) to examine the underlying dimensions of collective action for LGBT rights, (3) to investigate the moderating role of collective action on the relationship between perceived discrimination and mental health among LGBT individuals, and (4) to examine gender differences in the moderating effect of collective action.

The researchers developed a scale to measure collective action for LGBT rights and examined the underlying dimensions of collective action in a sample of 1,050 LGBT individuals in Hong Kong. The research also examined the moderating role of collective action on the relationship between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms.

The LGBT Collective Action Scale measured two dimensions of collective action: private and public. The moderating effects of private and public collective action were significant, such that the positive association between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms was weaker among LGBT individuals with higher levels of collective action. Subgroup analyses showed that private collective action moderated the association between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms among sexual minority men and women, but the moderating effect of public collective action was found only in sexual minority women. Perceived discrimination was positively correlated with private and public collective action, but it exhibited a significantly stronger association with public collective action than with private collective action.

The study provided empirical support for the resilience effect of collective action in sexual and gender minorities. Collective action enables LGBT individuals to counteract heterosexism in various forms: either privately, by confronting the biased language and attitudes of others, or publicly, by taking part in protests for LGBT rights. Participating in private and public collective action can buffer the negative effect of discrimination on mental health in LGBT individuals.

The study was conducted together with Professor Winnie Mak Wing-sze at the Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

To learn more about the research, please click here.