Zhe Wang is a Departmental Lecturer in Contemporary Chinese Studies at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies. She holds a DPhil in Human Geography from the University of Oxford. Before joining OSGA, she worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Education, University of Oxford.
Her research focuses on international education and student mobility, transnational migration and urban transformation, and social inequality and development in China and Southeast Asia. She has published widely on Chinese student mobility, return migration, and the social impacts of international higher education. Her recent monograph is Transnational Student Return Migration and Megacities in China: Practices of Cityzenship (Springer, 2023).
Research Interests
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International education and student mobility
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Social inequality and inclusive development in China and Southeast Asia
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Transnational migration and urban transformation
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Qualitative research methods
Publications
Book/Monograph
Wang, Z. (2023) Transnational Student Return Migration and Megacities in China: Practices of Cityzenship. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-2083-9
Papers
Wang, Z and Qi, Y (2025) Relational identity of transnational Chinese returnees as (non-)Shanghainese: Everyday experiences and places. Identities. https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2025.2454779
Hanley, Tyson, Wang, et al. (2025) Impact of International Professional Mobility Programmes: A Systematic Literature. Review Journal of Adult & Continuing Education. https://doi.org/10.1177/14779714241311007
Chankseliani, M ... Wang, Z (2025) International student mobility and poverty reduction: A qualitative study of the mechanisms of systemic change. World Development. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102732
Wang, Z and Hu, X. (2024) The Normative Biography: International Higher Education Fever among China’s Middle-class Families. The China Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741024001474
Wang, Z, et al. (2024). How do international student returnees contribute to the development of their home countries? A systematic mapping and thematic synthesis. International Journal of Educational Research, 125, 102330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2024.102330
Chankseliani, Wang, et al. (2024). How Do International Student Returnees Contribute to Home Country Development? International Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.6017/895b9e0d.4b50652d
Wang, Z (2022) Transnational Education Space as A ‘Stepping-stone’: Exploring Adulthood Transition of Transnational Chinese Students in UK universities. Population, Space and Place. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2571
Book chapters
Wang, Z (accepted and forthcoming) Hukou and the International Chinese Student Mobilities. In The Elgar International Encyclopedia of Sociology of Education. R. Sidhu, J. Waters and Y. Cheng (eds.)
Wang, Z and Waters. J (accepted and forthcoming) Chinese Students' Everyday Experiences of Exclusions and Microaggressions at Oxford. In Race, Resistance and Belonging in Oxford. Patricia Daley, Michael Joseph, Yasmin Khan and Stephen Tuck (eds.). Bloomsbury
Waters, J and Wang, Z (2023) Families in educational migration: strategies, relations and emotional investments. In Handbook on Migration and the Family. Waters, J. and B. Yeoh (eds.) https://doi.org/10.4337/9781789908732.00020
