ABSTRACT Future imaginaries shape the policy innovations that guide universities in their approaches to internationalisation. China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA) represents a transformative grand strategy aimed at fostering a regional innovation system through knowledge creation, cross-boundary collaboration, and the cultivation of high-quality talent via inward-oriented higher education (HE) internationalisation. This paper examines how innovative universities in the GBA construct future imaginaries of internationalisation and communicate these images, as well as the ways in which they translate these imaginaries into practice by managing the student affairs and campus experiences of international students. Employing a multiple case study approach, the study focuses on two innovative GBA universities, utilising discourse analysis of institutional policies and social media, complemented by semi-structured interviews with stakeholders. Findings reveal that these universities align their internationalisation imaginaries with a state-directed vision that emphasises political, diplomatic, and cultural partnerships over entrepreneurial motives. Unlike Anglo-Saxon models influenced by neoliberalism and academic entrepreneurialism, China’s approach leverages HE as a tool for cultural diplomacy and soft power, promoting Chinese characteristics in a multipolar, multicultural world. This research contributes to reimagining indigenous HE internationalisation, offering insights into how future imaginaries guide policy innovation and approaches to HE internationalisation. By situating university practices within national frameworks, the study underscores the interplay between state-led visions and institutional agency in advancing the regional innovation ecosystem.

ABSTRACT Supporting early development is crucial for ensuring children can access learning opportunities in school and achieve what is commonly termed “school readiness”. This paper highlights the critical importance of holistic assessment tools in this process. Given the lack of evaluation of such tools, this study is significant in outlining the development and evaluation of an enhanced version of the Developmental Profiling Tool (DPT), designed to provide a comprehensive, ecologically valid assessment of child development at school entry. Developed by a multidisciplinary team and grounded in developmental theory, the DPT is unique in comprising 58 dichotomous observations across seven domains: auditory skills, visual perception, internal senses and interoception, external senses, and fine and gross motor coordination. Involving 51 educators and 391 children, the study used rigorous methodology to evaluate the tool’s psychometric properties, including face, ecological, and convergent validity, and interrater reliability. When compared with standardised assessments, the DPT demonstrated robust validity and reliability, mapping children’s strengths and developmental areas and facilitating timely, targeted support without reliance on external referrals. Findings highlight the tool’s potential to reduce learning gaps, enhance SEND identification, and embed proactive support in everyday school practice. The study contributes a scalable, practitioner-led model for early developmental assessment, with implications for policy, training, and inclusive education.

ABSTRACT The last decade has seen a growth in school-based mental health promotion and prevention programmes alongside an increasing expectation that the design and research of such programmes should be co-produced with children and young people to prioritise their voices. However, little is known about how such programmes are designed and experienced by children and young people, particularly in primary schools. This paper addresses this by reporting on original data from focus groups with 65 children (aged 6–11 years) from 10 primary schools in north-west England who took part in the coproduction of a sport- and art-based mental health literacy (MHL) programme, Tackling the Blues (TtB), during the 2022/2023 school year. Three themes were generated: (i) “It’s a funnier way of learning stuff”: Appealing and age-appropriate coproduction; (ii) “We all have our own opinions, and it just matters … what we think”: Respect for different forms of knowledge and creating empowering and safe spaces; and (iii) “The only people that get to choose in this school is (sic) the teachers”: Positive and equitable relationships and respect for autonomy and choice. Our findings provide novel insight into children’s experiences of coproduction for the development of research and practical advantages of the design of school-based MHL programmes intended to benefit children. We conclude that for the benefits of coproduction to be fully realised, a diverse group of key stakeholders must be committed to sharing power and enacting a set of agreed principles to promote the design and development of future contextually and culturally relevant programmes.

ABSTRACT China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has catalysed a significant increase in international student enrolment in Chinese universities, accompanied by systematic efforts to cultivate these students’ cultural affinity for China. However, limited research examines the integrative system where different-level policy actors systematically cultivate students’ cultural affinity and students’ responses to the system. This study employed Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory to analyse the experiences of 30 international undergraduate students from BRI partner countries at a prestigious Chinese university. Through in-depth interviews and qualitative analysis, the research unveiled a “semi-inclusive international HE ecosystem” was implemented by policy actors across macro to micro levels. While multilevel policy actors coordinated efforts to foster international students’ cultural affinity for China, exclusionary policies/practices in accommodation and career pathways limited sustained relations with Chinese society. Students reported growing cultural affinity for China, though their interpretations differed. Some questioned its value amid limited career and settlement prospects within China, while others saw cultural affinity with China as useful capital for BRI-related careers outside China. This study enriches scholarly understanding of non-Western approaches to international education and highlights the need for more nuanced policy frameworks to accommodate diverse student trajectories. The findings have important implications for international student support and higher education policy in emerging education hubs.

ABSTRACT This article investigates the resilience of low-cost private schools serving migrant children in urban China, focusing on their management strategies and interactions with governmental entities. Amid economic constraints, regulatory tightening, and the demands of migrant communities, these schools must balance operational sustainability with compliance and quality standards. Drawing on fieldwork in Shanghai and Beijing, this study uses observation and semi-structured interviews, combined with a resilience-based analytical framework, to examine how school administrators navigate these challenges through diverse strategies–ranging from service adaption and stakeholder collaboration to strategic policy negotiation. A key contribution of this study lies in its novel focus on the adaptive strategies of low-cost private schools during periods of dual pressure: post-pandemic recovery and intensified government regulation. It further explores the evolving interactions between schools, government agencies, non-governmental organisations and employers of migrant workers, highlighting the role of collaboration, regulatory negotiation, and strategic partnerships in fostering school improvement. By approaching the institutional resilience of low cost private schools within a constrained policy environment from a practical perspective, this article offers new insights into school governance in marginalised educational settings.

ABSTRACT Since it was established in 1999, the Welsh Government has implemented several initiatives to increase the number of Welsh speakers in Wales. A core element of these initiatives has been strengthening Welsh-medium education (WME) provisions, which is now reflected in the high concentration of Welsh speakers in younger age groups, with an ever-growing number coming from non-Welsh speaking households. This paper draws on 8 semi-structured interviews with non-Welsh speaking parents from the South Wales Valleys, an area of Wales where Welsh is not widely spoken, who chose a WME for their children. The findings demonstrate that parents' incentives to invest in a WME centred around acquiring various forms of capital for their children, notably with a greater emphasis on economic capital than has been indicated in previous studies. Parents' beliefs about the Welsh language, and subsequently their ideas about their children's futures, played a prominent role in their decision to enrol their children in WME. There was also evidence that parents' experiences became increasingly challenging as their children progressed through their WME. This highlights a need for more attention to the accessibility and promotion of existing provisions, as well as systematising and strengthening the support available post-primary education within the WME sector.

ABSTRACT Higher education has expanded rapidly worldwide; and the absolute rate of participation among students from underprivileged families increases in the expanded and diversified system. However, inequality remains a persistent issue as the most valuable degrees in prestigious universities are still disproportionately obtained by students from advantaged groups while disadvantaged students are often clustered in new postsecondary programmes at less prestigious tertiary institutes. To better understand the equality implications of education expansion and diversification, this study focuses on the development of sub-degree programmes in community colleges and examines the educational prospects of students in these programmes. Based on interview data with students who successfully transferred from sub-degree studies to bachelor’s degree programmes in two selective universities in Hong Kong, it highlights the potential for the new postsecondary sector to modify the operation of social inequalities within a highly stratified education system. The study also reveals students’ post-transfer experiences in elite universities, providing crucial empirical insights for improving education equality in higher education.

ABSTRACT Wellbeing and education, though inherently interconnected, are often treated separately in secondary school policy and practice. We argue that this separation, or siloisation, is driven by two key neoliberal assumptions that operate in the fields of both education and wellbeing. Firstly, a components approach to understanding the concepts of “education” and “wellbeing”, which leads to a prioritisation of that which is measurable and quantifiable within them. Secondly, an uncritical acceptance of the individual as the unit of analysis. Together these assumptions create a narrowing of definitions of education and wellbeing with profound effects in students’ and teachers’ lives. We develop our argument first through a critical overview of global trends in wellbeing and education. We then draw on illustrative examples from qualitative studies based in England and Uganda where we identify four common threads across the diverse contexts. These are: the denial of bodies and human vulnerabilities in the name of “better outcomes”, erasure of difference in the name of “getting it right”, expectation of individual excellence that leads to shame and fear, and ill-conceived or conspicuously absent wellbeing policies in schools. In our conclusions, we suggest that relational approaches to wellbeing, and experiential approaches to learning, could foster more integrated policy and practice that recognise the importance of the lived experiences of students and teachers. In doing so, we add our voices to scholars advocating for the reconnection and reintegration of wellbeing and education.