Yuan Gao is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Higher Education Research (CHER), Southern University of Science and Technology.

Yuan obtained her PhD from the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne, MEd with distinction from University of Bristol, and honours Bachelor of Arts (double degree) from Peking University, China.

Prior to her position at CHER, Yuan has held various educational research, teaching and consulting positions over the past nine years, including Research Fellow at Centre for International Research on Educational Systems, Victoria University (2021-2022), Senior Research Officer in the Centre for Higher Education Equity and Diversity Research (CHEEDR) at La Trobe University (2019-2021), and Research Officer at CIRES (2017-2019).

Yuan’s research field includes higher education internationalization, intercultural education, and higher education theory. She had published nearly 20 academic papers in both English and Chinese, of which nine were with SSCI indexed journals. Yuan has also published a book with Palgrave Macmillan and another three book chapters. Her has tens of peer-reviewed conference papers and a number of project reports, including the national project of Securing Australia’s Future. Yuan has performed as a reviewer since 2012 for a couple of top journals in the field of higher education, including Higher Education, Journal of Studies in International Education, Studies in Higher Education. In 2022 she is invited to become a member of editorial board for Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management.