The existing literature had concentrated on implementing internationalization policies in Chinese higher education such as Chinese-Foreign cooperation in running schools and international branch campuses. However, very little research had been probed on the internationalization of cross-institutional education, especially for postgraduate education. In light of the current research circumstance with a shortage of educational study in the postgraduate level of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA), research that was based on the cross-institutional doctoral programs seems crucial. Therefore, this research aimed to explore the international features, strategies as well as challenges and benefits of cross-institutional doctoral education in the GBA.

This paper adopted a qualitative case study to look into the practices and strategies of cross-institutional doctoral education in China in the context of internationalization. Data collection was achieved through document analysis and multiple case-study methods at the University of Hong Kong-Southern University of Science and Technology joint training Ph.D. programs (HKU-SUSTech) and Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI). The conceptual framework of this study combined three characteristics of education hub incorporating student, knowledge, and talent hub in the context of internationalization and the institutional logics of different dimensions from doctoral education such as admission criteria, teaching and research, curriculum design, supervision models, and funding issues. In this study, a targeted and snowballing approach was used to find appropriate participants including academics and doctoral students from two cases for in-depth interviews. The analyses at the contextual level for the institutional and governmental policies and information along with the inductively thematic analyses were employed to explain how to map out strategies for facilitating the internationalization of cross-institutional doctoral programs in the GBA.

The study clearly showed the advantages of cross-institutional doctoral programs for improving international research collaboration and the other phenomenon of interdisciplinary research quality. This thesis has demonstrated that resource pooling and the dual-supervisory system can enhance doctoral education by referring to the HKU-SUSTech and TBSI programs. The dual supervisory model not only expanded students’ research experiences but also optimized the advantages of each participating institution, improving the research output and increasing international publications. The focus on entrepreneurship, innovation, and industry liaisons that TBSI has also exhibited how academic research can lead to the creation of regional technological improvements.

The significance of this research was not only about theoretical explorations but also referring to practical implications in the research fields of Chinese doctoral education and cross-institutional higher education. It would have the theoretical contributions on framework and comprehension of cross-institutional doctoral education, education hubs and international postgraduate education in China. Moreover, this study will provide the strategical guidelines by the data-driven evidence to the stakeholders of the cross-institutional doctoral programs in and beyond the GBA.

Keywords: Internationalization of Higher Education, Chinese Doctoral Education, The Greater Bay Area, Cross-institutional programs, Higher education policy and strategy.