The WeChat public platform: strengthening HSS academics’ global competitiveness in non-English speaking countries ( La plataforma pública WeChat: un refuerzo de la competitividad global de los académicos de humanidades y de ciencias sociales en países de habla no inglesa )

Abstract

The WeChat public platform has become a low-cost, synchronistic and effective social media channel for daily communications between the Chinese and the West. This project aims to enhance Chinese and European humanities and social sciences (HSS) academics’ global competitiveness in international scholarships via WeChat public platforms. The study was conducted in three parts, the pre-survey, the intervention using the WeChat public programme and the post-survey. There were 224 participants, who used the social media tool WeChat in the quantitative study. After the pre-survey, workshops were designed to introduce the WeChat platform and to explain to the HSS staff at the selected universities how the platform was constructed at the first stage. This was followed by a post-survey questionnaire which was adapted to evaluate the effects of the programme. The results show that Chinese HSS academics are interested in using WeChat public platforms in order to have potential collaborations with the West in research publications, conference presentations, visiting scholar programme applications and students’ mobility programmes.