Universities have been coping with various challenges and pressures over the last decade. Therefore, capacity building for academic leaders is a critical point for universities to survive in this challenging era. Yet, existing studies suffer from several limitations. Among others, they do not consider the examination of academic staff members' and…

Higher education systems need to increasingly transform in order to face new challenges of society in a modern and global context. Both Europe and China are facing challenges in restructuring their higher education systems and embracing the potential for higher education to deliver innovative teaching and learning as well as social and economic…

Cognitive presence sustains the learning community through intellectual discourse. Previous studies have explored cognitive presence using mainly quantitative measures in relation to students' perceived learning. This study adopts a mixed-method approach to investigate students' perception of cognitive presence, its relationship with academic…

This special issue focuses on the reforms and collaborations in Europe--China doctoral education. The articles in this special issue provide an insightful picture of the recent reforms in doctoral education in China and EU countries. Next to the structural reforms in Europe and China, the special issue papers have also specifically focused on…

The main purpose of this study is to explore Chinese and European university staff members' perceptions about the challenges and capacity building needs in terms of academic leadership and university governance. A survey questionnaire with open-ended questions was administered to 58 staff members from 7 Chinese universities and 31 staff members…

This study investigates perceptions of European and Chinese stakeholders on doctoral education (DE) in China and Europe, particularly the cooperation between the two sides. Data were collected through online and paper survey from both European and Chinese stakeholders (N = 946). The results provide insights for policy-makers, university…

Blended learning has been studied for many years. However, it is necessary to assess whether blended learning is a good practice as opposed to face-to-face and online learning. Based on the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education, a questionnaire was designed to compare blended learning in seven dimensions to traditional and…

This study examines educators' and providers' perceptions of constraints and critical success factors of the development and implementation of online L2 learning. The focus is on Dutch L2 learning in adult education in Flanders. Semi-structured interviews with seven educators (shaping pedagogies/curricula) and six providers (organizing/offering…