APS scholar shares the joys of promoting social changes through research work

Dr Alex He Jingwei is the Associate Professor and Associate Head (Research and Development) of the Department of Asian and Policy Studies (APS). He specialises in research related to health policies and social welfare reforms, with a particular focus on mainland China, Hong Kong, and the rest of East Asia. Dr He not only publishes his research output prolifically through various academic publications, but also actively participates in policy advocacy.

Dr He’s research has gained wide recognition in both mainland China and Hong Kong. His research insights were absorbed in the voluntary health insurance scheme launched by the Hong Kong SAR Government. Six of his articles were cited in “Healthy China: Deepening Health Reform in China, Building High-Quality and Value-Based Service Delivery”, a blueprint for reforms from the high-profile study conducted for the World Bank, the World Health Organisation, and the Chinese government.

The University Grants Committee announced the results of the latest Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) in May 2021. In it, EdUHK’s performance in terms of research impact on the political science and public policy discipline stood out among other public universities in Hong Kong. Research impact cases submitted by Dr He and another APS public policy scholar, Professor Chou Kee-lee, were unanimously given the top score of “outstanding” (four stars) by the international expert panel. No other local universities achieved a 100% outstanding record for impact in this discipline.

In this issue of FLASS FORWARD, Dr He shares with us his passion, joys and tips for doing research. He also shares his thoughts about what role social scientists can play in the current battle against the pandemic.

A: I finished my bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration as well as my master’s degree in public policy and administration in Xiamen University (2000-2007) and obtained my doctoral degree from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (NUS) (2007-2011).

When I was a third-year student at Xiamen University, my classmates and I formed a team to join a nation-wide academic competition, where contestants came from all over the country including first-class universities like Peking University, Tsinghua University and Fudan University. Our team stood out and won first prize. This gave me confidence and ignited my interest in doing research.

My team’s research project was about the rural situation in mainland China. I grew up in a middle-class urban family. Through this competition, I developed a strong emotional link with the disadvantaged people in mainland China and beyond. Since then, understanding the underprivileged has captured my research interest.

My research career started ever since I began studying for my PhD at NUS. Before the end of my second year studying at NUS, I had already written a research paper that was published in a top international journal. This reassured me of my ability to pursue a career in research.

After joining EdUHK in 2011, I expanded my research interest and studies from mainland China to include Hong Kong and East Asia.

Dr He (front row, fifth from left) takes students in his master’s programme on a visit to the Housing Authority to learn public housing policy in Hong Kong.

A: My research interests are in public policy and governance. Public policy issues are always very complicated, involving the interests of many people. One has to understand the concerns of different stakeholders when formulating a public policy. As a scholar, I enjoy explaining the complexity of public policy to the people concerned.

Public policy issues have a direct impact on people. I feel that it is very meaningful when your knowledge and research can bring real social impacts and contribute to a better society.

Around 2013 and 2014, I followed the healthcare reform in Hong Kong. My research results about health financing were published in SCMP and Mingpao, which attracted attention from the Food and Health Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government. They invited me to share my research insights with them, and I participated in the government consultation about the subsequent launch of the voluntary health insurance scheme.

As a social scientist and public policy scholar, I find a lot of joy in being able to offer recommendations and promote good policy changes. I believe a well-researched policy change can benefit millions of people. Even though I only played a small part in the whole policy change process, being able to contribute my efforts to make our society a better place still gave me tremendous satisfaction.

A: I believe there are three essential factors that determine whether a research project will be successful or not. First, the research must be strongly supported by theories. Scholars have to master the theory in a very comprehensive way. Researchers have to know the big theories, follow all the major theoretical debates, and understand the leading questions in these debates. Because I am the associate editor for two policy journals—Policy and Society and the Journal of Asian Public Policy—I read many articles every day and know what the current theoretical debates are. This sharpens my sensitivity towards the latest development of theories.

The second key factor for a successful research project is whether it has a strong methodological foundation. To this end, I have always been exploring new methods in conducting research.

Having a social impact is the third factor for a successful research project. The University Grants Committee (UGC) has changed how it assesses the results of research projects in the RAE 2020. In the latest round, research impact was included as one of the assessment parameters and made up 15% of the overall mark. From this change, one can see that research projects are increasingly expected to generate genuine social impact and have broader social relevance.

When picking a research topic, I always ask myself what kind of impact the project can bring in terms of affecting policy decisions and changing people’s perceptions. Social impact is high on my list of considerations.

A: The collection of data often poses a challenge to a researcher. For social scientists like me, I often need to do telephone and household surveys to collect data. The process can be very tedious as it involves a lot of logistics issues.

Data collection has become particularly taxing in the last two years as COVID-19 is affecting everybody’s life. Lockdowns, restrictions on movement and travel restrictions have made data collection even harder. My current General Research Fund (GRF) project is in the area of China studies. Because of the pandemic, it has been impossible for me to conduct research on the mainland over the past two years or so. This has been a bit distressing.

Another challenge comes from methodological innovations. To stay updated of the latest trends, scholars have to keep on learning about new tools and methods. Many researchers also experience challenges in applying theories to real-life scenarios. Employing a powerful theory while researching and obtaining impressive research findings are not enough. You need to explain your findings in a theoretically sound way and translate the findings into real-life implications. To achieve this, researchers need a very strong ability to theorise their findings. That demands creativity and a daring spirit to rise up to the challenge.

A: I think scientists, particularly medical professionals, are at the frontline of containing the COVID-19 outbreak and curing the disease. The pandemic not only poses a huge challenge to our medical system, however, but also has a sweeping influence on interpersonal interaction and social relations. In schools, students have changed from learning in real classrooms to attending online courses. People have shifted from dining with their friends at restaurants to having meals at home.

How does the social isolation caused by the pandemic impact people’s physical and mental health in the long run? How are elderly people suffering from loneliness during the pandemic? How should governments improve the preparedness and capacity of health systems? These are the questions we need to understand when our society is gradually recovering from this public health crisis. This is how social science studies can make a contribution.

A: In RAE 2020, all public policy and political science departments of the eight public universities in Hong Kong submitted their research impact cases. The two submitted by APS were unanimously rated by the international expert panel as outstanding. The achievement increased the visibility of EdUHK in the local policy research community.

APS has a relatively young team. We are very dynamic and energetic. The department provides a lot of support to colleagues. Both APS and the University as a whole have made phenomenal progress in the research environment over the past years.

A: I like playing football with my son and daughter. My kids play football pretty well. We also watch all sorts of sports events, like the summer and winter Olympics, and the World Cup. We also go cycling and hiking together. I am also a big movie fan, and I watched at least one movie every week during the pandemic with my family. Taking part in sports activities, watching sports programmes and enjoying movies are my ways to relieve stress.
 

A: I receive many review invitations every day and normally don’t decline any of them. On average, I review one journal paper every week and learn a lot about theory and methodology through reviewing papers submitted by other scholars. Many scholars don’t like reviewing journal papers, but I encourage them to take up more review jobs. It provides valuable opportunities to learn new theories and methods, and understand the latest trends in research questions for different disciplines.

To know more about Dr He’s research work, please refer to the related article.