Date: 5th March (Thursday), 2026
Time: 4:00 to 5:15
Mode: online by Zoom
Speaker: Li Zhu, Assistant Professor, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Chair: Hugo Horta, Associate Professor, The University of Hong Kong
Registration link: https://hku.zoom.us/meeting/register/hN3Kqb8yQbC8N8qT47_ycw
Abstract:
In China, higher education has long been framed as a reliable pathway to upward mobility. Yet for many students, entering university exposes structural barriers that fracture this meritocratic promise. This study examines two questions: (1) What consequences do disadvantaged students face when higher-education-based mobility chances become elusive? and (2) How do they cope with this disillusionment? The findings show that students experience intense emotional distress and cognitive dissonance, and that they employ both emotional and cognitive coping strategies. Emotionally, they turn to therapeutic discourses that promote gratitude, contentment, and non-materialistic concepts of success. Cognitively, they reinterpret meritocracy through a neo-familistic lens that emphasizes cross-generational accumulation of effort. These adaptations illuminate the evolving moral tensions of higher education in an era of rising social inequality.
About the speaker:
Dr. Li Zhu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Studies at Xi’an Jiaotong–Liverpool University. She holds a PhD in Education from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research draws on sociological perspectives to examine the intersections of higher education, social mobility, and meritocratic beliefs. Her current projects explore international doctoral students’ career choices. Her work has been published in the British Journal of Sociology and the British Journal of Sociology of Education. She also serves on the Editorial Boards of the British Journal of Sociology of Education and the Cambridge Journal of Education.