International Exchange:
Exploring Student Well-being in Hong Kong & Australia
As part of our global outreach initiative, Common Core connected HKU undergraduate students with students from the University of Queensland and Griffith University in Australia to participate in a 12-week fully online international exchange programme. This inquiry-based exchange focused on building research skills through exploring the topic of well-being across the two contexts. Students participated in multimodal and experiential activities such as privilege walks, digital storytelling, and body mapping and conducted collaborative research to make a creative and original contribution to the conceptions of student well-being. Academic staff from the participating institutions advised and mentor the students in their research projects.
One of the student groups (represented across three universities) presented their works at the 2023 Students Transitions Achievement Retention & Success (STARS) Conference.
Published peer-reviewed papers:
Heinrichs, D. H., Hameed, S., Tsao, J., McLay, K., Nguyen, H., & Alhadad, S. (2023). Mundane matters: entangling moments of student wellbeing across cultures, time, space, and virtual worlds. Critical Studies in Education, 65(3), 235–255. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2023.2252469
Tsao, J., Alhadad, S., Heinrichs, D., Abdul Hameed, S., & McLay, K. (2025). The digital-intercultural-transdisciplinary nexus: Online international exchanges for transdisciplinary education. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.9620
Please contact the project coordinator Dr Jack Tsao (jtsao@hku.hk) if you have further enquiries.
Research Mentors
Dr Jack Tsao, Common Core, The University of Hong Kong
Dr Suraiya Hameed, School of Education, The University of Queensland
Dr Kate McLay, School of Education, The University of Queensland
Dr Huong Nguyen, Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation, The University of Queensland
Dr Danielle Heinrichs, School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University
Dr Sakinah Alhadad, School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University
Refer to the Commitments and Conduct for research projects.