Li Wei (Chinese: 李嵬; pinyin: Lǐ Wéi) is a British linguist, journal editor, educator, and university leader, of Manchu-Chinese heritage, who is currently the Director and Dean of the UCL Institute of Education, University College London.
[2] Prior to his appointment as IOE's Director and Dean in March 2021, he held a Chair of Applied Linguistics, was Director of the Centre for Applied Linguistics at the UCL Institute of Education, and directed the ESRC UCL, Bloomsbury (Birkbeck, SOAS, LSHTM) and East London Doctoral Training Partnership.
Li Wei was born in Beijing, China, of Manchu-Chinese parents and was initially trained as an English language teacher at the end of Mao's Cultural Revolution.
In January 2015, he took up the Chair of Applied Linguistics at University College London's Institute of Education.
He is married to the linguist and intercultural communication scholar and educator Professor Zhu Hua, with whom he has two sons.