147questions in the context of higher education expansion and innovation provides an
instrumental use for HER, whereas research on higher education can also play a
monitoring role through the conceptualization of major changes in the sector. This
argument indicates that orientations of HER can be responsive and proactive in
terms of its relationship with policy-making. It also suggests that HER is sensitive
to political–administrative changes at the system level.
This idea frames the present study. Despite the fact that the range of topics and
facets in higher education is broad, they are oriented to respond to social changes
and challenges (Teichler 1996 , 2005 ). In this sense, although a major part of HER
focuses on teaching, learning, and assessment^1 (Horta and Jung 2014 ), trends in
HER and changes are connected at the policy and systemic levels. Based on these
ideas, this study intends to exemplify the nexus between the system context of the
development in higher education and the characteristics of research on higher edu-
cation that are published in journals, thereby charting the trends and developments
of HER in Hong Kong.
With regard to the theoretical orientations of the analysis, this chapter attempts
to further explore the conceptual understanding of the management of knowledge
networks with a focus on the emerging research community on higher education in
Hong Kong, which leads in establishing international research networks in the
region (Jung and Horta 2013 ). According to Postiglione, the model of knowledge
networks in Hong Kong has two dimensions. The first is “a high degree of interna-
tionalism,” which promotes the emergence of a globally open academic environ-
ment. Thus, academics in the territory are able to closely integrate with the global
academy. The second is “a highly valued but self-defined Chinese cultural heritage,”
which emotionally connects academics in Hong Kong with the development of
China (Postiglione 2013 : 347). This cultural background facilitates the intensified
research collaboration with universities in the Chinese mainland, whereas the
Western-originated academic model makes the national vision and commitment in
the collaborative engagements remain reflective. This concept is called “the cosmo-
politan model” (Postiglione 2013 ), in which the model successfully combines inter-
national elements with local and national traditions in the development of knowledge
networks.
This chapter explores the response of the cosmopolitan model in HER in Hong
Kong to the notion of transnationality embedded in the thesis of cosmopolitaniza-
tion by Beck ( 2011 ), which presents a new type of cosmopolitanism (Fine 2007 ). In
the past, cosmopolitanism was theoretically constructed based on universalism ver-
sus particularism (see Goulder 1957 ; Merton 1968 ; Nussbaum 1994 ). However,
Beck ( 2003 ) argues that localism and cosmopolitanism are not mutually exclusive
by themselves, and localism is also an essential element in contemporary cosmo-
politanism, emphasizing the interaction between the global and the local. Hence, a
cosmopolitan model is one that overcomes “the dominant opposition between cos-
mopolitans and locals” (Beck 2003 : 17). The challenge of studying such a model is
to avoid the state-centric perspective associated with the concepts of locals to
replace the national “either/or” with a transnational/translocal “this, as well as that”
(see Beck 2003 , 2011 ). Furthermore, Beck ( 2011 ) also argues that we are living in
8 Higher Education Research in Hong Kong: Context, Trends, and Vision