Zhao Cheng

Zhao Cheng is a Research Fellow at the EU-China Higher Education Research Center (ECHE) of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, specializing in academic leadership, higher education, and EU-China cooperation with emphasis on leadership development and capacity building.

Research Interests:

• Academic Leadership & Leadership Development
• Capacity Building in Higher Education
• China Studies & EU-China Educational Relations
• Second Language Acquisition (Chinese)
• Internationalization of Higher Education

Recent publications (2024-2025) analyze leadership training program effectiveness in digital/EU-China contexts and L2 Chinese learning strategies, revealing critical insights into participant motivation, engagement, and cross-cultural educational dynamics.

Scientific Awards: None mentioned.

Grants & Projects: Actively serves as Programme Committee Member and Organizer for the VUB SGP Project "Building Research Capacity and Engagement for VUB Postdocs" (Feb-Aug 2025), conducting workshops on research methodologies and qualitative data analysis.

Research Teams: Collaborates with the LEAD Academic Network through ECHE, advancing academic leadership research and internationalization initiatives in higher education.