On March 12, 2026, the Shadow Education SIG successfully held the seminar “Scaling eliteness: Private tutors’ self-promotion in commodified shadow education”, delivered by Vincent Wai Sum Tse, Joint PhD in Applied Linguistics at Monash University and the University of Warwick.

Chaired by Professor Nutsa Kobakhidze of HKU, the seminar explored how private tutors in Hong Kong’s shadow education sector construct and promote images of prestige, exclusivity, and distinction in their online profiles. Drawing on critical discourse analytic perspectives, the talk highlighted how tutors present their academic backgrounds, unique experiences, and forms of expertise to position themselves as elite figures within an increasingly commodified education market.

The seminar was attended by five participants on site and 11 participants online, reflecting strong engagement from both in-person and virtual audiences. The session sparked thoughtful discussion on the marketization of education and the ways in which eliteness is strategically communicated in contemporary shadow education.

We look forward to having more SIG meetings in the following months.