IHE Welcomes Visiting Scholar from China

IHE welcomes visiting scholar and IHE alumna Haixia Xu.

The Institute of Higher Education welcomes visiting scholar and IHE alumna Haixia Xu,  a Research Fellow at the National Center for Education Development Research (NCEDR) of the Chinese Ministry of Education. NCEDR is charged with providing consultancy to the leadership of the ministry and its various departments on macro-level education policies in China.

Xu is currently on a government grant to visit the University of Georgia. In the following six months, she will complete an assigned study on the funding for humanities and social sciences in American higher education, continue working on a study on MOOCs—of which she is principle investigator—and explore critical issues in higher education in both China and the United States.

Xu earned a Ph.D. from IHE in 2009 and did her dissertation on State-Level Virtual Universities:  A Comparative Study. Her research expertise is primarily in higher education and lifelong learning. In the past years, she has dedicated much time to the study of international higher education, especially trends and strategies of higher education in major countries. She has published, presented and consulted on open and distance education in China and was invited to serve on a national panel on the Open University Initiative, contributing to the launch of the first six open universities in China.

In the field of lifelong learning, Xu was a core member of a national project on establishing a learning society in China, and she was co-coordinator of Research Network 4 (National Strategies for Lifelong Learning) of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Education and Research Hub for Lifelong Learning.

“We are proud of Dr. Xu’s many accomplishments and look forward to having her work with students and faculty at the institute over the next few months,” said IHE Director Libby V. Morris.

For her part, Xu said she is pleased to be back in Georgia. “I am excited about discussing my research with faculty and students in the Institute,” she said, “and about being part of the many exciting events in Meigs Hall once again!”