Advancing University Quality Assurance in East Asia

Research based at The University of Hong Kong's Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning seeks to:

Improve and connect quality assurance measures across East Asian Universities.
Through these connections, establish clear mechanisms for teaching and learning transfer between institutions, states and nations.

Current steps towards these aims:

1. An empirical pilot of combined HK and Mainland measure of Quality Assurance:

Fryer, L. K., Zeng, L. M., & Zhao, Y. (2021). Assessing University and Programme Experiences: Towards an

Integrated Asia Pacific Approach. Frontiers in Education, 6, 748590. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.748590

2. A theoretical integration of American, British/Australian and (more recent) Chinese perspectives on quality assurance measures:

Zeng, L. M., Fryer, L. K., & Zhao, M. (2023). Integrating student learning and university engagement

models: Toward a comprehensive assessment of the university student experience student learning experience for quality assurance in higher education. Higher Education Quarterly. http://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12363

3. A book establishing a general student engagement framework for cooperation across asian pacific universities.

Fryer, L. K., Ronnel K., Zeng, M. (2024). Student Engagement Across Pacific Asia: Steps toward a Shared

Framework. Spring-Nature Education Series. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-0558-0

4. Develop and validate a shortened version of a combined student engagement scale based on two prominent measures: the Chinese College Student Survey (CCSS) and the Student Learning Experience Questionnaire (SLEQ)

Jiang, J., Shum, A., King, R. B., Zeng, L. M., & Fryer, L. K. (2025). Development and validation of short version

of university-program student engagement questionnaire (SUPSEQ). Higher Education Research & Development, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2548275

Steps towards these aims:

COMPLETED:

1. Cross-national (Mainland China, Japan, Korea, Phillipines, Taiwan, and Hong Kong) test of the integrated quality assurance measure from Fryer et al. (2021).

2. Edited Springer Book (April 2024) presenting 15+ studies, commentaries and direction for the East Asian universities regarding quality assurance (Fryer et al, 2024).

3. A Symposium on East Asian University Quality Assurance Measurement and Networking: June 2024, The University of Hong Kong.

4. Revised measure of students' programme and university engagement (August, 2025)

ONGOING:

4. Cross-Hong Kong person-centered understanding of student engagement: Under review

5. Stage 2 of Cross-national research towards a benchmarking system for inter-university cooperation on student engagement enhancement. Academic year 25-26 data collection, 2027 publication