Xin Xu (许心) is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE), Department of Education, and a Junior Research Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford. 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 education and research. She has strong interests in the following research areas:
- Higher education studies, including sociology of higher education, higher education policy, internationalisation and globalisation of higher education, Chinese higher education and culture, higher education in East Asia.
- Research on research, including research policy, research evaluation, research incentivisation, research culture, research ethics, humanities and social sciences research, academic profession, global knowledge system, international academic mobility, and international research collaboration.
Projects she currently works on include the ESRC-funded CGHE project ‘the role of research in higher education and research assessment’, SRHE-funded project ‘International academics in mainland China’, and BAICE-funded project ‘Ethical research in international and comparative education during Covid-19’.
Xin is co-editor of 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 Publications, and on the Research Management Committee of the Centre for Global Higher Education. She also convenes the agenda committee of CGHE Oxford.
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 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).