Hei-hang Hayes Tang

Associate Professor of Education Policy at The Education University of Hong Kong; Programme Leader, Cambridge Professional Development Qualification (Diploma in Educational Leadership accreditation)

Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR

About

A sociologist, Dr Hayes Tang is an internationally research-active, well sought after and award-winning academic researcher specialising in the fields of higher education policy, academic profession and youth studies. He is recognised as being in the world's top 1% (lifetime) and top 0.2% (2020-2024) researchers in the Higher Education specialty according to ScholarGPS. His research focuses on the sociological role of higher education in the changing world, especially in the contexts of entrepreneurialism, innovation and future-oriented development. He is committed to create new knowledge in application for better academic leadership and policy innovation in East Asia. He is known to be a scholar on the topics of academic entrepreneurialism and roles of universities in the regional innovation system. Sole scholarship and collaborative research partnership enabled him to be principal investigator of 14 projects and co-investigator of 15 projects, securing a total of funding worth HK$11.27 million/ US$1.45 million since 2014. He is now Associate Professor (Sociology of Higher Education) and Associate Head (Quality Assurance and Enhancement) of Department of Education Policy and Leadership at the Education University of Hong Kong. He serves as an Associate Editor (Sociology and Education) of Humanities & Social Sciences Communications (SSCI-indexed), Senior Associate Editor of the Journal of Comparative and International Higher Education (the official journal of Comparative and International Education Society's (CIES) Higher Education Special Interest Group), Advisory Council member of Harvard Business Review (an opt-in research community of business professionals) and the Editorial Board members of International Journal of Educational Management (IJEM) and Chinese Education & Society. On top of scholarly research, he considers education a commitment imperative to an academic life. Championing the spirit of liberal arts education, Hayes was presented at the start of his academic career the Outstanding Teacher Award by the School of Professional and Continuing Education, The University of Hong Kong in 2012. On issues about education, innovation and youth engagement, he was interviewed by journalism including ARTE (Association relative à la télévision européenne) (Franco-German channel), The Straits Times, South China Morning Post (SCMP), Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK, Radio 3), and China Daily. In service of knowledge exchange, Hayes ([email protected]) welcomes media consultation, external membership, and commissioned R&D projects.

Experience

  • The Asia Pacific Educational Research Association (2 yrs 8 mos)
    • Lifelong Fellow
      Nov 2025 - Present · 9 mos

    • Executive Director
      Dec 2023 - Nov 2025 · 2 yrs

  • 香港教育大學 (11 yrs)
    • Associate Head (Quality Assurance and Enhancement)
      Oct 2024 - Present · 1 yr 10 mos

    • Associate Professor of Education Policy (specialty: Sociology of Higher Education)
      Jul 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 1 mo

    • Assistant Professor of Education Policy
      Aug 2015 - Jul 2024 · 9 yrs

  • Advisory Council Member at Harvard Business Review (an opt-in research community of business professionals)
    Aug 2024 - Present · 2 yrs

  • Fellow at Centre for Higher Education Leadership and Policy Studies at The Education University of Hong Kong
    Mar 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 5 mos

  • Research Fellow at Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change (APCLC), The Education University of Hong Kong
    Jul 2018 - Present · 8 yrs 1 mo