Baoyan Cheng

Baoyan Cheng is Professor and Graduate Chair in the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Education. She specializes in comparative and international education, with particular attention to Chinese education systems, global student mobility, and equity in higher education.

Education

• Ed.D. International Education, Harvard University (2007)
• Ed.M. International Education, Harvard University (2002)
• M.A. International Education Policy, University of Maryland, College Park (2001)
• M.A. English Language and Literature, Wuhan University (1999)
• B.A. Wuhan University of Technology (1996)

Research Interests

Her research interrogates how globalization reshapes education, focusing on Chinese students’ international mobility, equity in higher-education financing, and the interplay between Confucian and liberal-arts educational traditions. She examines cultural capital transmission through exchange programs and the sociocultural adaptation of “parachute kids” studying abroad.

Publication Trajectory

Across nearly two decades, Cheng’s scholarship spans policy analyses of student-loan schemes, empirical studies on Beijing middle-school students’ overseas aspirations, and philosophical explorations of Confucian cosmopolitanism in liberal-arts curricula. Recent work couples large-scale surveys with qualitative accounts to illuminate how transnational education shapes identity, citizenship, and social stratification.

Books & Major Works

• The New Journey to the West: Patterns of Chinese Students’ International Mobility (2020, with Lin & Fan)
• Student Loans in China: Efficiency, Equity and Social Justice (2011)

Presentations & Leadership

As Graduate Chair, she mentors doctoral students, directs thesis committees, and organizes research-methods workshops. She has delivered keynote addresses at CIES, PESA, and AERA conferences, and maintains active collaborations with scholars in China, Japan, and Slovenia.