Staff profile

William Yat Wai Lo is an Associate Professor in Intercultural and International Education in the School of Education. He has around 20 years of professional experience in higher education settings. Prior to joining Durham, he worked as an associate professor at the Education University of Hong Kong. William’s research areas include higher education policy and comparative and international higher education, with a focus on East Asia. His work appears in international peer review journals. He was named among the top 2% most cited scientists in the world, in an annual list released by Stanford University in 2021 and 2022. He also serves an executive and editorial board member for academic journals.

Information for Prospective Doctoral Research Student Supervisions

William is interested to work with students who have research interests in international higher education, comparative study of governance in higher education, higher education reforms in global context.

Research Interests

• Higher education policy and governance in East Asia
• Comparative and cross-cultural analysis of higher education
• Social and policy studies in education
• Globalisation, internationalisation and educational reforms

• 2023: Editoral Review Board Member of Higher Education:
• 2023: Editoral Board Member of Comparative Education:
• 2020: Associate Editor of Asia Pacific Journal of Education:
• 2018: Associate Editor of Higher Education Evaluation and Development:
• 2015: Editorial Advisory Board Member of International Journal of Comparative Education and Development:

Chapter in book

• Lo, W. Y. W., & Allen, R. M. (2023). The Ranking Game. In D. Kapur, D. M. Malone, & L. Kong (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Higher Education in the Asia-Pacific Region (210-227). Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192845986.013.10

Journal Article

• Lo, W. Y. W., & Li, D. (2023). Reimagining the notion of Hong Kong as an education hub: National imperative for higher education policy. International Journal of Educational Development, 103, Article 102938. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2023.102938
• Lo, W. Y. W., & Auld, E. (2023). The role of university leaders in a political crisis: Students' perspectives from Hong Kong. Higher Education Quarterly, https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12418
• Lo, W. Y. W. (2023). Departing from hybridity: higher education development and university governance in postcolonial Hong Kong. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2023.2200077
• Lo, W. Y. W., & Yang, R. (2023). Hybridisation and recombination: perspectives on higher education in Chinese societies. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 44(3), 337-347. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2023.2200073
• Lo, W. Y. W. (2023). Vulnerable autonomy: university governance in the context of student activism in Hong Kong. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 32(2), 293-312. https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2021.2007504
• Vong, S. K., & Lo, W. Y. W. (2023). On the (re)move: exploring governmentality in post-colonial Macao’s higher education. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2023.2200076
• Chan, S., Yang, C., & Wai Lo, W. Y. (2023). Adopting neoliberal values in Taiwan’s higher education governance: a hybridisation process. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 44(3), 425-440. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2023.2200078