Xin Xu (许心) is a Departmental Lecturer in Higher/Tertiary Education. Xin teaches on the MSc in Education (Higher Education) programme, and supervises DPhil and MSc dissertations. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
Xin’s research concentrates on higher/tertiary education and research, including:
- Tertiary education and research policy, governance, and assessment;
- Global dynamics and internationalisation of tertiary education and research, including cross-border academic and knowledge mobility;
- Other areas of research on research, including research culture, value and ethics.
Xin is co-editor of Handbook of Meta-Research (with Alis Oancea, Gemma Derrick, Nuzha Nuseibeh; Edward Elgar, 2024) and Changing Higher Education in East Asia (with Simon Marginson; Bloomsbury, 2022) and author of journal articles and book chapters on the themes noted above. She serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Educational Research, and on the Research Management Committee of the Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE). She also convenes the agenda committee of CGHE Oxford.
Projects she currently works on include the ESRC-funded CGHE project ‘Research on Research: the research function and mission of higher education’, SRHE-funded project ‘International academics in mainland China’, and BAICE-funded project ‘Ethical research in international and comparative education during Covid-19’.
In general, Xin’s research aims to:
- Contribute to critical, impactful, cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary research on tertiary education and research;
- Advance conceptualisations of and empirical works on intersectional injustice and inequity in tertiary education, particularly in the changing global context;
- Contribute to cultivating equitable, ethical, collaborative, and resilient futures of tertiary education.
Xin was previously an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. She holds a BA in English Language and Literature from Tsinghua University (First-Class Honours, one-year exchange study at Heidelberg University), MA in Higher Education from Peking University (Distinction), and DPhil in Education from the University of Oxford (Clarendon Scholar, Emerald/HETL Outstanding Doctoral Research Award winner, CIES Globalization & Education SIG Dissertation Award winner).
Research
Books
Oancea, A., Derrick, G., Nuseibeh, N., & Xu, X. (2024). Handbook of meta-research (pp. 1-390).
Marginson, S., … Xu, X. (Eds.). (2022). Changing Higher Education in East Asia. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Book chapters
Derrick, G., Nuseibeh, N., Oancea, A., & Xu, X. (2024). Map of the Handbook of Meta-Research. In Handbook of Meta-Research (pp. 12-16). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Derrick, G., Nuseibeh, N., Oancea, A., & Xu, X. (2024). Meta-research as discipline, field, or spectrum. In Handbook of Meta-Research (pp. 1-11). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Xu, X. (2024). Research evaluation in China: policy, practice and prospects. In Handbook of Meta-Research (pp. 172-189). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Xu, X. (2022). Internationalization of Chinese humanities and social sciences. In S. Marginson & X. Xu (Eds.), Changing Higher Education in East Asia (pp. 129-146). Bloomsbury Academic.
Marginson, S., & Xu, X. (2022). ‘The ensemble of diverse music’: internationalization strategies and endogenous agendas. In S. Marginson & X. Xu (Eds.), Changing Higher Education in East Asia (pp. 1-30). Bloomsbury Academic.
Marginson, S., & Xu, X. (2022). ‘The Ensemble of Diverse Music’: Internationalization Strategies and Endogenous Agendas Preface and Acknowledgements. In Changing Higher Education in East Asia (pp. 1-30).
Marginson, S., Papatsiba, V., & Xu, X. (2020). Feeling the Brexit shock: European connectedness and the existential crisis in UK higher education. In C. Callender, W. Locke, & S. Marginson (Eds.), Changing Higher Education for a Changing World (pp. 67-83). Bloomsbury Academic.
Journal articles
Xu, X. (2023). Will China stay centre-stage for international research collaboration?. Nature, 620(7973), S14.
Xu, X. (2023). Towards a Chinese definition of higher education internationalisation? A systematic review of the Chinese and English literature. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 44(3), 364-388.
Marini, G., & Xu, X. (2023). Big fishes in a big pond: a comparison between foreign and Chinese academics’ research influence in mainland China. International Journal of Chinese Education, 12(1), 1-17.
Marginson, S., & Xu, X. (2022). Hegemony and inequality in global science: problems of the center-periphery model. Comparative Education Review, 67(1), 31-52.
Shen, W., Xu, X., & Wang, X. (2022). Reconceptualising international academic mobility in the global knowledge system: towards a new research agenda. Higher Education, 84(6), 1317-1342.
Yang, L., Marginson, S., & Xu, X. (2022). ‘Thinking through the world’: a tianxia heuristic for higher education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 22(2), 139-155.
Xu, X., Braun Střelcová, A., Marini, G., Huang, F., & Cai, Y. (2022). International academics in mainland China: what do we know and what do we need to know?. European Journal of Higher Education, 12(Sup1), 416-433.
Zhou, S., McKinley, J., Rose, H., & Xu, X. (2021). English medium higher education in China: challenges and ELT support. ELT Journal, 76(2), 261-271.
Xu, X., Rose, H., McKinley, J., & Zhou, S. (2021). The incentivisation of English medium instruction in Chinese universities: policy misfires and misalignments. Applied Linguistics Review, 14(6), 1539-1561.
Xu, X. (2021). A policy trajectory analysis of the internationalisation of Chinese humanities and social sciences research (1978-2020) (vol 84, 102425, 2021). INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 85.
Xu, X. (2021). Epistemic diversity and cross-cultural comparative research: ontology, challenges, and outcomes. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 20(1), 36-48.
Xu, X. (2021). A policy trajectory analysis of the internationalisation of Chinese humanities and social sciences research (1978–2020). International Journal of Educational Development, 84.
Xu, X., Oancea, A., & Rose, H. (2021). The impacts of incentives for international publications on research cultures in Chinese humanities and social sciences. Minerva, 59(4), 469-492.
Xu, X. (2019). China ‘goes out’ in a centre/periphery world: Incentivising international publications in the humanities and social sciences. Higher Education, 80, 157-172.
Xu, X. (2019). Performing under ‘the baton of administrative power’? Chinese academics’ responses to incentives for international publications. Research Evaluation, 29(1), 87-99.
Xu, X., Rose, H., & Oancea, A. (2019). Incentivising international publications: institutional policymaking in Chinese higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 46(6), 1132-1145.
Han, S., & Xu, X. (2019). How far has the state ‘stepped back’: an exploratory study of the changing governance of higher education in China (1978–2018). Higher Education, 78(5), 931-946.
Internet publication
XU, X., & Marginson, S. (2022). HE in East Asia – different lenses for different times. LSE Higher Education Blog.
XU, X. (2021). What does the rise of Asia mean for global higher education?. Times Higher Education.
XU, X. (2020). The hunt for a coronavirus cure is showing how science can change for the better. The Conversation.
XU, X., ROSE, H., & OANCEA, A. (2020). Publish Internationally or Perish? Incentive Schemes for International Publications in the Chinese Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS). The Network for Research into Chinese Education Mobilities.
Reports
Marini, G., & XU, X. (2021). “The Golden Guests”? International Faculty in Mainland Chinese Universities. Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE).
ROSE, H., McKinley, J., XU, X., & Zhou, S. (2020). Investigating policy and implementation of English-medium instruction in higher education institutions in China. British Council.
Other
Cai, Y., Braun Střelcová, A., Marini, G., Huang, F., & Xu, X. (2022). Foreign academics in China. In International Higher Education (Vols. 2022, Issues 111, pp. 29-30). Center for International Higher Education at Boston College.
OANCEA, A., XU, X., ROBSON, J., McDermott, T., & SCUTT, C. (2021). Educational research in the United Kingdom, 2010–2020. In Research Intelligence (Vols. 149, pp. 26-27).
Marginson, S., & Xu, X. (2021). Moving beyond centre-periphery science: Towards an ecology of knowledge. In Centre for Global Higher Education Working Paper Series. Centre for Global Higher Education.
Xu, X. (2020). Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on global research. In International Higher Education (Vols. 104, pp. 18-19). DUZ Academic Publishers.
Oancea, A., & Xu, X. (2017). Performance-based Research Funding. Oxford University Press (OUP).
