Joshua Ka-ho Mok has been appointed as the first head of Bristol University's Centre For East Asian Studies

Joshua Ka-ho Mok will soon swap the heat of Hong Hong for winter in England when he takes up the first professorship in East Asian studies at Bristol University in January. The associate professor of the public and social administration at the City University of Hong Kong will head Bristol's new Centre for East Asian Studies for postgraduate teaching and research.

Bristol's decision to invest in East Asian studies followed Durham University's move to close its East Asian studies department due to a lack of student interest and unsatisfactory research output.

Bristol said East Asian studies was vital given the growing economies of countries such as China and the increase in the number of students coming from the Far East.

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Dr Mok said: "Establishing the CEAS was an imaginative move by Bristol.

Bristol has a solid foundation of interdisciplinary research and wants to make use of the existing expertise in the centre."

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He has worked with academics from Bristol for some time in his capacity as an external examiner.

Dr Mok gained his doctorate at the London School of Economics and has an international reputation as a researcher.

The academic is soon to publish Education Reform and Education Policy in East Asia and has launched the journal Globalization, Societies and Education . He is also series editor of the journal Contemporary Issues in Education.

The CEAS will be launched next September, when it will host an international conference.

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