The Visiting Researcher Awards form part of WERA’s capacity building initiatives. These awards are in collaboration with our Association and Institution Members.
Submissions for the WERA Visiting Researcher Awards are now closed. Please stay tuned for the upcoming call.
Awardees
2026 (IEA-University of Hamburg)
Soobin Choi, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
This WERA Visiting Researcher Award 2026 is hosted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and the Research Center “Literacy in Diversity Settings (LiDS”) at the University of Hamburg.
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Soobin Choi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education Policy and Leadership at The Education University of Hong Kong. Dr. Choi’s research examines educational leadership and school organization through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Utilizing critical and innovative quantitative methods, he investigates how school leaders prepare educators to teach diverse student bodies in a culturally responsive manner and build organizational capacity to foster an inclusive and culturally responsive school climate. His work also explores how leadership effectiveness can be evaluated through the integration of multi-source perspectives, offering more inclusive and comprehensive frameworks for leadership assessment. Dr. Choi’s research has been published in leading journals, including Educational Administration Quarterly, AERA Open, Review of Educational Research, Educational Management Administration & Leadership, and School Effectiveness and School Improvement.
2026 (CAE, NIE-Nanyang Technological University)
Chao Wang, UNICEF Egypt, Egypt
This WERA Visiting Researcher Award 2026 is hosted by the National Institute of Education (NIE) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.
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Chao Wang is an Education Officer with UNICEF Egypt, working on education system transformation and evidence-informed policymaking. Over the past decade, she has worked across China and Egypt with governments, development partners, and research institutions on education reform, education finance, system strengthening, and inclusive education.
She holds an MSc from the University of Oxford in child development and education and a Master’s degree in the Economics of Education from Beijing Normal University. Her professional and research interests focus on bridging research, policy, and practice to support system-level change in international development contexts. As part of the WERA Visiting Research Award, her research will explore how evaluation approaches can better support education system transformation and evidence-informed decision-making. As an education economist, she is also interested in how global development cooperation frameworks are shaping education systems and human capital development across regions, including China, the Middle East, and emerging ASEAN linkages.
2025 (IEA-University of Hamburg)
Cherry Zin Oo, Myanmar Imperial College, Myanmar
This WERA Visiting Researcher Award 2025 is hosted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and the Research Center “Literacy in Diversity Settings (LiDS”) at the University of Hamburg.
2025 (CAE, NIE-Nanyang Technological University)
Phan Thi Tra Khuc, Dong A University, Danang, Vietnam
This WERA Visiting Researcher Award 2025 is hosted by the National Institute of Education (NIE) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.
2024 (CAE, NIE-Nanyang Technological University)
Stefan Johansson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
This WERA Visiting Researcher Award 2024 is hosted by the National Institute of Education (NIE) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.
2024 (IEA-University of Pretoria)
Jaekyung Lee, University at Buffalo, SUNY, USA
This WERA Visiting Researcher Award 2024 is hosted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), the Centre for the Study of Resilience (CSR), and the Centre for Evaluation and Assessment (CEA) at the University of Pretoria (UP).
2024 (IEA-University of Hamburg)
Yufang Ruan, UNESCO, Paris, France
This WERA Visiting Researcher Award 2024 is hosted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and the Research Center “Literacy in Diversity Settings (LiDS”) at the University of Hamburg.
2023
Mafalda Leal Campos, Center of Research in Education, Portugal
The WERA Visiting Researcher Award 2023 was hosted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and the Research Center “Literacy in Diversity Settings (LiDS”) at the University of Hamburg.
2022
Dr. Ioulia Televantou, Lecturer in Quantitative Research in Methods in Social Sciences, European University Cyprus
The WERA Visiting Researcher Award 2022 was hosted by The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), and the Research Center “Literacy in Diversity Settings (LiDS”) at the University of Hamburg.
2019
Celeste-Marié Combrinck, University of Pretoria, South Africa
The WERA Visiting Researcher Award 2019 was hosted by the IEA Research and Analysis (RandA) Unit in Hamburg, Germany, and the Diversity in Education Research Lab (DiVER) at the University of Hamburg.