Jiayi Wang

Bio

Jiayi Wang is a PhD researcher at the University for the Creative Arts. She holds an MFA in Electronic Integrated Arts from Alfred University and a BA in Education from Liaoning Normal University. Her background spans creative practice, education and international experience, including work with the United Nations Office at Geneva’s Internet Governance Forum. Her doctoral research brings together her interests in participatory art, education and student well-being, with a particular focus on the experiences of Chinese international students in UK higher education.

My PhD title:

Creative Practice, Well-being and Belonging: A Practice-led Study with Chinese International Students in UK Higher Education.

My PhD summary:

My research explores how creative practice can support the well-being, social connection and sense of belonging of Chinese international students during their transition to UK higher education. As a Chinese international student and creative practitioner, I am particularly interested in how arts-informed approaches can provide alternative spaces for expression, reflection and interaction beyond conventional academic and verbal settings.

Using a practice-led, mixed-methods approach, I investigate these experiences through a series of collaborative creative workshops with Chinese international postgraduate students who have recently arrived in the UK. The workshops use drawing, mark-making, watercolour and ink, collage, spontaneous drawing and collaborative making to explore themes including arrival, adaptation, identity, belonging and connection.

My research combines creative practice with quantitative, qualitative and visual research materials. Data are generated through the Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS), participant surveys and reflections, group discussions, semi-structured interviews, participant artworks and researcher observations. Rather than treating artworks as objects for psychological interpretation, I examine creative processes and visual materials alongside participants’ own reflections and accounts of their experiences.

Through this research, I aim to develop an arts-informed workshop model that demonstrates how accessible and participatory creative practice can contribute to spaces for reflection, interaction and social connection for Chinese international students navigating a new educational and cultural environment.