Jiajie Liu comes from China and he identifies himself as a life-long learner, an educational practitioner and an entrepreneur. He is engaged in administrative roles in a university in mainland China, responsible for the development of scientific research and the management of internal and external funds. He made a commitment to foster a research climate within the university, motivate faculty members to pursue scientific research and apply for external funding from various agencies. At the same time, he has set up an education consulting firm to provide services for the internationalisation of higher education to both individuals and organisations. He is also currently a PhD candidate at University College London, where his research interests are early career academics’ academic identity and their experience of the teaching–research nexus. He was trained in engineering at undergraduate level and later gained his two Master’s degrees from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow respectively.