On May 22, 2026, the Comparative Education Research Centre (CERC) successfully held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) from 1:30 to 2:30 pm, both in person and via Zoom. The meeting brought together members of the Centre to review the past year’s developments, reflect on key achievements, and discuss strategies for future growth. Director Jeremy Rappleye presented the annual report, highlighting CERC’s ongoing contributions to comparative education research, publications, seminars, and international collaboration.

Following the AGM, CERC was honoured to host its 2026 Annual Lecture delivered by Professor Anthony Welch from the University of Sydney. Prof. Welch’s talk, titled “From Knowledge Diplomacy to Knowledge Security: Developments, Implications and a Warning for Comparative Education” called attention to the decline of Knowledge Diplomacy and the accelerated securitization of higher education in a increasingly polarized world. Through critically analyzing the case of Australia, Prof. Welch emphasized the importance of taking geopolitical situation into account in research of comparative education. The talk was well received and sparked vibrant discussions.

This year’s AGM and lecture underscore CERC’s commitment to fostering critical dialogue, advancing scholarship, and building a vibrant research community locally and globally.

CERC held its thrid Management Committee Meeting in the academic year 2025~2026 on May 8th. The meeting recapped CERC’s activities in the CESHK and CIES conferences. CERC also shows strong sense of presence in upcoming conferences through keynote speeches delivered by MC members. CERC also announced the schedule and theme of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Annual lecture.

CERC has made significant progress in publishing new CERC books. Two books are in the production stage (CERC Studies in Comparative Education 37 & 38), one in final revision stage (CERC Studies in Comparative Education 39). CERC is also expecting two new books in the monograph series.

The meeting also introduced the outline of CERC seminar series in 2026 fall semester. The series contains 4 seminars and aims at creating a deep dialogue between leading ‘Western’ theoretical trends (Science and Technology Studies (STS), including AI) and ‘East Asian’ philosophies.

In 2021 CERC published in its Monographs series a book by Mark Bray entitled Shadow Education in Africa: Private Supplementary Tutoring and its Policy Implications. It was the first such work to focus on Africa, and has attracted considerable attention including through reviews in 16 journals that can be accessed through the CERC website.

The book has been translated into Arabic, French and Portuguese, which are the dominant official languages in Africa, and is now available in Chinese.

Translation of the Chinese version was led by (i) Li Siyuan together with Huang Yirui and Jiang Tongling at Northwest University, Xi’an, and (ii) Tian Renxiang at the University of Hong Kong. CERC greatly values their efforts.

We also much appreciate the partnership with the Centre for International Research in Supplementary Tutoring (CIRIST) at East China Normal University (ECNU) in supporting the original work and disseminating this Chinese version.

CERC held its second Management Committee Meeting in the academic year 2025~2026 on December 3rd. The meeting covered the centre’s activities in the fall semester including three CERC seminars on diverse but relevant topics and the inaugural HKU-THU Symposium on educational traditions and AI. Two Special Interest Groups (SIG) also shared their fruitful activities during the semester.

The meeting also highlighted CERC’s presence in upcoming conferences, including that of Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA), Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK) and The Comparative and International Education Society (CIES). Many members of CERC will attend, present and deliver keynote speeches at the conferences. The meeting envisioned more international and interdisciplinary events in the next semester.

CERC’s most popular book (see below) is Comparative Education Research: Approaches and Methods, edited by Mark Bray, Bob Adamson and Mark Mason. Arabic has now been added to the list of translations, becoming the 12^th language in which the book has been published.

The Arabic translation was accomplished by Hanan Abdelrahim from Alexandria University in Egypt (pictured here with Mark Bray). It was launched on 11 November 2025 in a workshop organized by the Gulf Comparative Education Society linked to its biennial conference in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates.

The Al Qasimi Foundation has generously sponsored publication of the book, in the first instance making it freely available online here. The book will be published in paper version in 2026.

Among CERC’s 50+ publications, the most popular is Comparative Education Research: Approaches and Methods, edited by Mark Bray, Bob Adamson and Mark Mason. The book has been published in two editions, with translations into Farsi, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, and Spanish (and Arabic on the way).

The Chinese version of the first edition was published by Peking University Press in 2010, and now the second edition has been published by East China Normal University Press (Shanghai).

The book has been especially welcomed for its individual chapters on different units for comparison. They include places, systems, times, genders, cultures, values, policies, curricula, and ways of learning.

Further information on this new Chinese edition is available here. The English version may be purchased at discount price here.

CERC held its first Management Committee Meeting in the academic year 2025~2026 on September 11th. The meeting covered the center’s summer activities and discussed the academic events in the fall semester. Important events include: four CERC seminars delivered by cutting-edge educational scholars on diverse but relevant issues; four reading group activities which will delve into the philosophy of classical Confucianism and discuss its relations with education.

The meeting also highlighted CERC’s presence in upcoming comparative and international conferences, including that of The Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE) and Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK).

The Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Annual Conference 2026: Re-examining Education and Peace in a Divided World will take place from March 28 – April 1, 2026, at San Francisco, CA.

The Call for Submissions is open and the deadline for all submission types is August 26, 2025, at 11:59pm ET. Please refer to the conference website for detailed information of submission and registration.

Oceania Comparative and International Education Society (OCIES) 53rd annual conference 2025 will be held from 23-26 November 2025, in Otautahi/Christchurch in Aotearoa New Zealand.  The theme will be “Education, Knowledge and Power in the Asia-Pacific”.

The deadline for abstract submission is 1 September 2025, please refer to the conference website for detailed information of submission and registration.

Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE) conference 2026 will be from June 29 – July 2, 2026, at Roskilde University, Denmark. The theme will be “Worlds of learning: comparative perspectives on the future(s) of education”.

The deadline for proposal submission is February 15, 2026, please refer to the Call for Papers for detailed information of submission and registration.

CERC held its first Management Committee Meeting on September 26th. The newly elected CERC Director, Jeremy Rappleye, welcomed the new Management Committee (MC) members and shared his vision for the center’s growth over the next two years. The MC approved the minutes from the previous meeting and introduced themselves, discussing their research backgrounds and potential contributions.

Key updates included progress in CERC’s book series and the upcoming release of the CERC-sponsored film Shadow Education in Georgia. Plans for the CESHK-CERC joint conference in November were also discussed, with CERC set to play a significant role.