Research Postgraduate Programme & Students

For the Research Postgraduate (RPg) Programmes, newly admitted students will choose or be matched with advisors based on similar research interests. Currently the school hosts over fifty RPg students with 80% of them pursuing a PhD and the remaining pursuing an MPhil. In addition to mainland and Hong Kong origins, our RPg students are from India, Bangladesh, Uganda, Greece, Poland, the Philippines, Nigeria, Vietnam, Ghana, and Peru.

In our department, more than 10 professors as the chief advisor supervise 20+ RPg students. Several of our faculty members teach RPg courses. RPg students under the supervision of our faculty members have won the top-student paper at ICA’s Public Relations and Organization Communication Divisions.

Some of our graduates are professors at various universities such as University of Colorado, Rutgers University, University of Florida, University of Toronto, Chinese University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong, and top universities (e.g., Tsinghua University) and second-tier universities in mainland China.

For specific information on admissions, program management, and course requirements, go to the School’s website.

Currently, our faculty members are supervising the following students in five major research areas.

Advertising and Branding Communication

Several faculty members are leading experts on celebrity endorsement and KOL influences, customer-brand relationship on social media, gamification and brand management, advertising and branding creativity, young consumers and media.

Available Advisors: Kara Chan, Kineta Hung, Jos Bartels, Regina Chen, Angela Mak

Current students: Li, Qiqi; Wang, Yan; Yang, Liuliu

Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility and Reputation

Our faculty members regularly publish works on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in emerging markets, CSR via social media, employee engagement and volunteering, influencer marketing in CSR, creating shared value, competitive advantage, and social impact, IT attributes and CSR communication, CO media presence and corporate reputation, and crisis communication and corporate reputation.

Available Advisors: Regina Chen, Angela Mak, Keon Young Park, Elina Tachkova, Jos Bartels, Kineta Hung

Current Students: Ma, Minqi

Health and Risk Communication

Several faculty members are devoted researchers in this area. They publish scholarly works on health message design and campaign, health information seeking, use and effects of mobile health technology, social support, social norm and smoking, workplace health and safety, health campaign using social media, health communication theory construction, and active ageing.

Available advisors: Leanne Chang, Stephanie Tsang, Dominic Yeo, Kara Chan, Vivian Sheer, Elina Tachkova

Current Students: Huang, Yue; Kabir, Md Ruhul; Wang, Jingyuan; Xin, Xin

Leadership and Organizational Communication

Our colleagues’ work includes personal leadership on social media, organization-stakeholder dialogue and outcomes, leader-member exchange at the workplace, leadership framing, organizational change and leadership, communication constitution of the organization, and organizational leadership theory construction and application, leadership communication in crises.

Available advisors: Vivian Sheer, Jos Bartels, Dominic Yeo, Regina Chen

Currents students: Xie, Jamin; Nie, Songli

Technology-Mediated Communication

Faculty members who conduct research in this area enquire about the relationships between technology and communication, including mediated workplace relationship communication, social capital via social media, dynamics and consequences of online vacation networks, social media communication, inter-organizational relationships and communication network, media affordances, and on the impact of technology on work routines. The implications of this line of research pertain to media use.

Faculty advisors: Jos Bartels, Dominic Yeo, Leanne Chang, Regina Chen

Current students: Ayi-bonte, Aurelia; Huang, Jiangling; Liu, Dandan; Xiao, Fan; Zhou Lin