Jointly organised by HKBU, The University of Chicago (UChicago) in the US, Seoul National University in South Korea and The University of British Columbia in Canada, the symposium sought to foster international research collaboration and to advance the professional development of doctoral students through scholarly exchange.

The symposium was an extension of a research project carried out between HKBU and UChicago. The project is led by Professor Daniel Lai, Dean and Chair Professor of the Faculty of Social Sciences, and Dr Kaxton Siu, Associate Professor of the Department of Sociology at HKBU, in collaboration with Professor Robert Chaskin and Professor Colleen Grogan of the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at UChicago.

At the event, faculty members who specialise in social work, policy and sociology in the four universities delivered seminars on topics related to a variety of social issues across the world. Doctoral students then presented their findings, which focused on five research areas, namely: globalisation, migration, and cross-national comparison; poverty and social development; children, youth, and families; health and mental health; and professional and workforce challenges and trajectories.