THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON HIGHER EDUCATION AROUND THE WORLD
INTRODUCTION
In December 2019, a viral outbreak of pneumonia of unknown origin occurred in Wuhan, China. On 9 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially announced the discovery of a novel coronavirus: SARS-Cov2. This new virus is the pathogen responsible for this infectious respiratory disease called COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease).
COVID-19 spread quickly around the world and was declared a pandemic by the WHO on
11 March 2020.
According to the WHO, on 1 April 2020 (at the time this Survey was conducted), there were 783 360 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 205 countries or territories around the world, having caused the death of 37 203 people. One month later, on 7 May, there were 3 634 172 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in almost all countries and territories of the world, having caused the death of 251 446 people.
In a couple of months, while the virus was spreading around the world, China managed, thanks to radical distancing and confinement measures, to reduce the cases of local transmission to zero. The success of social distancing and confinement measures adopted by China and strongly recommended by the WHO, encouraged many other countries to take the same measures.
As of 1 April 2020, already more than 3.4 billion people, representing 43% of the world population, were in lockdown in more than 80 countries and territories around the world. The lockdown and social distancing measures immediately had an enormous impact on higher education.
The impact on Education and in particular Higher Education
According to UNESCO, on 1 April 2020, schools and higher education institutions (HEIs) were closed in 185 countries, affecting 1 542 412 000 learners, which constitute 89.4% of total enrolled learners. At the beginning of May, some countries, experiencing decreasing numbers of cases and deaths, started lifting confinement measures. However, on 7 May (the time of
writing the report), schools and higher education institutions (HEIs) were still closed in 177 countries, affecting 1 268 164 088 learners, which constitute 72.4% of total enrolled learners.
In order to better understand the disruption caused by COVID-19 on higher education and to investigate the first measures undertaken by higher education institutions around the world to respond to the crisis, the International Association of Universities (IAU) decided to launch the IAU Global Survey on the impact of COVID-19 on higher education around the world. It was available online and open from 25 March until 17 April 2020.
The IAU Global Survey is not the first nor the only survey on the impact of COVID-19 on higher education. Different organisations, as for instance the Institute of International Education (IIE) in the USA or the European Association for International Education (EAIE) and the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) in Europe, conducted surveys as well. These surveys are interesting because they target specific stakeholders in higher education such as international relation officers or students. They predominantly focus their analysis on the impact of COVID- 19 on international education. The American Council on Education (ACE) in the USA, conducted surveys with a broader perspective, investigating the impact of COVID-19 on not only international higher education, but also more generally on higher education. All above mentioned surveys are national or regional in scope.
What makes the IAU Global Survey unique is that it tries to capture a description of the impact of COVID-19 at global level and on higher education in the broader sense, including all areas of universities and other Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)’ missions of teaching and learning, research and community engagement.
The IAU Global Survey is by no means a complete or exhaustive analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on higher education. It does provide however for a first analysis of the phenomenon at a global level. The outcomes deserve to be investigated further and the results,
due to the very nature of the survey, pertain to a certain period of time only. The Survey was carried out in a period which coincided with different stages of the propagation of the pandemic around the world.
At that time, the epidemic was already under control in China, South Korea and in other Asian countries, while it concurred with the peak of the number of infections in many countries in Europe. It was a period in which the number of infections in North America were rising fast and the beginning of the epidemic in Africa and Latin America.
This is important to keep in mind when reading the results of the survey. The epidemic evolves in time and what was true one month ago might not be true now or in one month’s time.
Nonetheless, it is useful to have a first global overview. IAU is planning to conduct two subsequent versions of the survey, one in October 2020, when the new academic year (or semester) in many countries around the world would have started, and one in 2021, when hopefully the pandemic will be over. The aim of the third survey will be to monitor the long- term impact of the pandemic on higher education.
The survey is part of a larger set of activities carried out by IAU to inform about the impact of COVID-19 on HE.
As stated above, many organisations around the world are collecting and sharing useful information. IAU developed a series of Webpages to make these available to the global higher education community, and other actors in society.
IAU hopes that this Global Survey Report will stimulate more research on the impact of COVID-19 on higher education and serve as a useful source of information for everyone interested in higher education.
General information on the IAU Survey
The IAU Global Survey on the impact of COVID-19 on higher education around the world was available online from 25 March to 17 April 2020. It received 576 replies from 424 universities and other Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) based in 109 countries and two Special Administrative Regions of China (Hong Kong and Macao).
In case of multiple replies from the same HEI, only one reply per HEI was kept for the analysis, therefore the final number of replies reviewed for the analysis is 424. Selection criteria were: the completeness of the answer (complete vs. incomplete answers), the position of the respondent inside the institution (priority was given to the highest position, e.g. rector vs. faculty member) and the date of completion (at the same level, e.g. two faculty members, the most recent one was retained).
The Survey was distributed via an email campaign. By drawing on the IAU World Higher Education Database (WHED: www.whed.net), it was addressed to 9 670 HEIs. A Call for participation was also published on the IAU website, shared through Twitter, the IAU E- Newsletter and circulated thanks to IAU Member Associations and Partners.
Because of these multiple channels of distribution, the calculation of a correct response rate is not possible. However, the number of 9 670 HEIs with contacts in the WHED can be considered as the approximate number of HEIs contacted.
The majority of questions in the survey were closed questions; respondents had to choose between certain options. However, there were also two optional open questions, which gave respondents the opportunity to report on the most important challenges encountered in light of the current crisis; these questions allowed them to identify potential opportunities or changes that they believe may impact higher education beyond the immediate emergency situation. 320 of the respondents (i.e. 75%) provided contributions to these questions and key trends were identified across the responses.
Summary
The survey analysis is based on 424 full replies from unique HEIs in 109 countries and two Special Administrative Regions of China (Hong Kong and Macao). Results are analysed both at the global level and at the regional level in four regions of the world (Africa, the Americas, Asia & Pacific and Europe).
➢ Whereas Africa and Europe are overrepresented in this survey, the Americas and Asia & Pacific are underrepresented.
➢ The profile of respondents is broad with Faculty members (20%), Heads of institution (17%) and heads of international office (16%) being the most common respondents.
➢ Almost all institutions that replied to the survey have been impacted by COVID- 19: 59% of them replied that all campus activities have stopped, and the institution is completely closed. The percentage of institutions in Africa responding to the same question is as high as 77%.
➢ Almost all HEIs (91%) have infrastructure in place to communicate with their students and staff about COVID-19. Despite this, respondents reported an immediate challenge to ensure clear and effective communication streams with staff and students.
➢ Almost 80% of respondents believe that COVID-19 will have an impact on the enrolment numbers for the new academic year. Almost half (46%) believe that the impact will affect both international and local students. Some HEIs, especially private ones, reported that this impact would have negative financial consequences.
➢ Two-thirds of HEIs reported that their senior management and faculty have been consulted by public or government officials in the context of public policy development relating to COVID-19.
➢ Almost half (48%) of respondents indicated that their government/ministry of education will support their institution in mitigating the disruption COVID-19 is causing. The most common support being assistance to complete the academic year.
➢ As far as partnerships are concerned, 64% of HEIs reported that COVID-19 would have a variety of effects. Half of them reported that COVID-19 weakened the partnerships, while only 18% reported that it strengthened them. However, for 31% of respondents, the COVID-19 pandemic created new opportunities with partner institutions.
➢ At almost all HEIs, COVID-19 affected teaching and learning, with two-thirds of them reporting that classroom teaching has been replaced by distance teaching and learning. The shift from face-to-face to distance teaching did not come without challenges, the main ones being access to technical infrastructure, competences and pedagogies for distance learning and the requirements of specific fields of study.
➢ At the same time, the forced move to distance teaching and learning offers important opportunities to propose more flexible learning possibilities, explore blended or hybrid learning and to mix synchronous learning with asynchronous learning.
➢ COVID-19 has had an impact on international student mobility at 89% of HEIs. The type of impact is diverse and varies from institution to institution, but everywhere it has been negative.
➢ Fortunately, the majority of HEIs have contingency plans in place to mitigate this impact.
➢ At the same time, 60% of HEIs also reported that COVID-19 has increased virtual mobility and/or collaborative online learning as alternatives to physical student mobility. This may safeguard internationalization to some extent but this shift will have to be analysed in more detail.
➢ A bit more than half of the HEIs are planning to carry out exams for the semester as planned, although the majority of them through new measures. However, there is substantial regional variation with 80% of HEIs in Europe planning to carry out exams, while exams are at risk of being postponed or cancelled at 61% of HEIs in Africa.
➢ As far as research is concerned, 80% of HEIs reported that research has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic at their institutions. The most common impact of COVID-19 has been the cancelling of international travel (at 83% of HEIs) and the cancellation or postponement of scientific conferences (81% of HEIs). Moreover, scientific projects are at risk of not being completed at a bit more than half of HEIs (52%).
➢ Only 41% of HEIs are involved in COVID-19 research, but at almost all of them researchers contribute to current public policy development. Three quarters of institutions are contributing to public policies either through their institutional leadershiporthroughtheirresearchers. AquarterofHEIsareconsideredimportant stakeholders for public policies development by their governments, both as institutions as such that need to be consulted, and for their expertise in research.
➢For the large majority of HEIs, COVID-19 impacted their community engagement initiatives. At a bit less than half of them the impact was positive - the crisis increased HEIs’ community engagement, whereas at a bit less than one third the impact was negative - it decreased HEIs’ community engagement activities.
➢ At the regional level, the impact is unequal, with COVID-19 having mainly increased community engagement in the Americas and decreased in Asia & Pacific.
➢ More than half of HEIs are carrying out community engagement activities in the context of COVID-19. Activities are diverse and vary from one institution to the next.
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