Key details
Professor Michael James Day
Professor of Education and Digital Thought
Professor Michael James Day, PhD, PFHEA, SCMALT is a British educational researcher and digital sociologist. He holds a personal chair as Professor of Education and Digital Thought and is Institutional Lead for Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) at the University of Greenwich, UK. His work focuses on the strategic and pedagogical integration of artificial intelligence and digital technologies across curriculum, assessment, teaching practice and the student experience of globalising universities.
Michael's career reflects a distinctive trajectory across education, from being the first in his family to attend university and qualifying as a teacher at 21, to school leadership, international education and ultimately a Professorship before the age of 40. His career has spanned the UK, Thailand, Myanmar and China, encompassing educational leadership and development, research, advocacy and equality-focused work before his move into senior academic and institutional leadership in higher education.
He is Vice-Chair of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT), a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) and a Senior Certified Member of ALT (SCMALT). In 2026, he was selected for the inaugural Google Higher Ed Faculty AI Fellowship, joining an international community focused on responsible AI, educational innovation and institutional transformation. He contributes actively to wider professional and public discussions about artificial intelligence, digital education and the future of universities.
Michael's research examines how students, educators and institutions engage with artificial intelligence and emerging digital technologies. His work includes studying generative AI and ChatGPT, AI-supported language learning, AI literacy, digital education, student success and human–AI co-constructed learning. A recurring focus of his scholarship is the changing role of educators and universities as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded within learning, assessment and professional life.
Michael's scholarship is also distinguished by the development of original concepts concerned with the social, educational and institutional consequences of technological change. His conceptual contributions include the pro-human Web, Third Culture Universities (TCUs) and academic cybercrime. Together with his empirical research on artificial intelligence and digital education, this work examines how universities, educators and learners can retain human agency, educational purpose and meaningful relationships as technologies increasingly reshape higher education.
His publications have appeared in leading journals including Education Sciences, Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, Education and Information Technologies, Artificial Intelligence in Education and The International Journal of Management Education. He holds numerous editorial roles including Nature Portfolio's Humanities and Social Sciences Communications and Chapters in Education. Michael is also editor of the Palgrave volume Emancipatory Education Without Boundaries in the Age of Neoliberalism, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Learning Platforms. His research, academic commentary and public-facing scholarship have been widely featured in Times Higher Education, The Conversation and specialist international media including GeekNews, Slashdot, TorrentFreak and Gigazine.
Michael welcomes enquiries from prospective doctoral researchers interested in human-centred, pedagogically informed and ethically responsible approaches to artificial intelligence, educational technology and digital education, particularly within international and transnational higher education.
Recognition
Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), Department for Education
Research / Scholarly interests
Education
Pedagogy
Educational Leadership
Technology Enhanced Learning
Web Science
Human Rights
Sociology of Education
Sociocybernetics
Media activity
Day, M.J. (2022). An Inspiration for Intercultural Learning Environment and Learner Empowerment. XJTLU Interview. https://www.xjtlu.edu.cn/en/news/2022/04/an-inspiration-forintercultural-learning.
Day, M.J., and Carr, L. (2015). Does Civil Society Need Martha Lane Fox as Online Champion?
The Conversation. https://www.theconversation.com/does-civic-societyneed-martha-lane-fox-as-online-champion-39602.
Recent publications
Peer Reviewed Journal Publications
Day, M.J. (2023, In Press). Towards Ethical AI in Universities: ChatGPT Technologies, Cultural Dimensions and Students with Mental Health Stigmas in Asian Higher Education Post COVID-19. Journal of Technology in Counsellor Education and Supervision. [TBC].
Phyo Aye, E., Mya San, E.E. and Day, M.J. (2023). Developing an Understanding of COVID-19 Pandemic Health Restrictions, Laws and Penalties in Myanmar. Journal of Human Rights and Peace Studies (HRPS), Volume 9, Issue 1. [THAIJO; TCI: Silver; OA]. https://so03.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/HRPS/article/view/261021
Low, D.S, McNeil, I. and Day, M.J (2022). Endangered Languages: A Sociocognitive Approach to Language Death, Identity Loss & Preservation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Sustainable Multilingualism, Volume 21, Issue 1. [SCOPUS SJR2021 0.132; Linguistics and Language Citescore (2022) 0.2; SNIP 0.55; OA]. https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/sm-2022-0011
Day, M.J., Low, D.S., Du Preez, S., and Skulsuthavong, M. (2022). Thailand’s Ajarn: Tracing Material-Semiotic Relationships in Thai Higher Education. Journal of Mass Communication, Volume 10, Issue 1. [THAIJO; TCI: SILVER; OA]. https://so03.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/masscomm/article/view/253768
Waters, T. and Day, M.J* (2022). Multicultural Mosaic? A Case Study of the Cultural Integration of International Students in Thai Higher Education during Thailand 4.0. Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Studies, Volume 22, Issue 1. [SCOPUS SJR2021 0.125 Arts and Humanities (Misc) (Q3); Citescore (2022) 0.2; THAIJO; TCI: GOLD; OA]. https://so02.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/hasss/article/view/242516
Waters, T. and Day M.J* (2022). Thai Menschenbild: A Study of Chinese, Thai, and International Students in a Private Thai University as Measured by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Volume 9, Issue 36 (2022). [SCOPUS SJR2021 0.42 Social Sciences (Misc) (Q2); AHCI; SSCI JCR 2023 3.5 (Q2); OA]. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-022-01101-y#Abs1
Day M.J., Du Preez, S., Low, D.S., and Skulsuthavong, M. (2021). ‘Reinventing’ Thai Universities: Ajarn, Thailand 4.0 & Cross-Cultural Communication Implications for International Academia. Journal of Mass Communication, Volume 9, Issue 1. [THAIJO; TCI: SILVER; OA]. https://so03.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/masscomm/article/view/246159
Day, M.J and Skulsuthavong, M. (2021). Newton’s Socio-technical Cradle? Web Science, the Weaponisation of Social Media, Hashtag Activism and Thailand's Postcolonial Pendulum. JOMEC Journal, Volume 16, Issue 1. [OA]. https://jomec.cardiffuniversitypress.org/articles/10.18573/jomec.207
Low, D.S., Aung, M.A., and Day M.J. (2020). Cognitive Sociology: Developing the ‘Diversity Pathways’ Model in Cultural Neuroscience. Human Behavior, Development and Society, Volume 24, Issue 4. [THAIJO; TCI: SILVER; OA]. https://so01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/hbds/article/view/243179
Chapters
Day M.J., and Skulsuthavong, M. (2022). Turbulence in Thailand? The Thai Digital Civil Rights Movement and a Pro-human ‘Contract for the Web’. In Choesin, Y. (Ed.) Social Transformations in India, Myanmar and Thailand: Volume II, Identity and Grassroots for Democratic Progress.
Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan/Springer.
Day, M.J. (2022). A Defining Moment? Working with IHRP and HRER Scholars in Myanmar During Crisis. In: Eain, L.P. et al. (2022). Voices from Myanmar During Crisis: Aspiring Academic Researchers Examine Contemporary Myanmar (Vol 1)
Day, M.J., and Skulsuthavong, M. (2021). Towards Social Transformation in Thailand: Orwellian Power Struggles and ‘Digital’ Human Rights Under the Socio-technical Thai Internet Panopticon. In Choesin, Y., Seekins, D., Takeda, M. (Eds.) Social Transformations in India, Myanmar and Thailand: Volume I, Social Political and Ecological Perspectives.
Presentations
Day, M.J., and Skulsuthavong, M. (2019). Web Science in SE Asia: Cultivating a ‘Thai Digital Renaissance’ Through (Re)Introducing an Interdisciplinary Science in Higher Education
Proceedings of the 7th Annual ANPOR Conference: Power of Public Opinion and Multicultural Communication Toward Global Transformation. Chiang Mai. Thailand. https://journal.anpor.net/index.php/proceedings/article/view/121
Day, M.J., Carr, L., and Halford, S. (2015). Developing the ‘Pro-human’ Web. Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Web Science Conference (WebSci’15), University of Oxford. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Oxford, United Kingdom. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2786451.2786458