Challenges Posed by COVID-19 on Doctoral Students' Wellbeing in Russia: Of International and Domestic Doctoral Students, Who Suffers More?

Background: While universities closed, implementing remote teaching and learning in response to COVID-19, this change significantly impacted the lives of graduate students, given their exposure to unique and diverse experiences. It thus has become essential to understand the possible differences in regard to the pandemic's impact on international and domestic students. Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the consequences of the challenges posed by COVID-19 on doctoral students' wellbeing in Russia. Methods: The study surveyed 4454 doctoral students across 249 Russian public universities. Results: The challenges posed by COVID-19 negatively affected international doctoral students' learning experience (ß= -0.269, p<0.001); students' satisfaction with supervision (ß= -0.098, p<0.001); dissertation experience (ß= -0.039, p<0.001); and doctoral program satisfaction (ß= -0.034, p<0.001). Furthermore, the challenges posed by COVID-19 affected domestic doctoral students' learning experience (ß=-0.368, p<0.001); students' satisfaction with supervision (ß=-0.194, p<0.001) and doctoral program satisfaction (ß=-0.034, p<0.001). However, the influence of the challenges posed by COVID-19 on communication frequency was relatively positive for both international (ß=0.060, p<0.001) and domestic students (ß=0.021, p<0.001), and dissertation experience (ß=0.061, p<0.001) was also positive for only domestic students. Furthermore, controlled factors comprising field of study (ß=-0.033, p<0.001); year of study (ß=0.127, p<0.001); and university region (ß=-0.056, p<0.001) influenced the effect of the challenges posed by COVID-19 on international doctoral students. Conclusion: The COVID-19 challenges had the greatest impact on the wellbeing of international students. Furthermore, both international and domestic students' communication frequency with their supervisors underwent a relatively positive impact (which implies no effect on both categories of students). Furthermore, the challenges posed by COVID-19 had no effect on domestic students' dissertation experiences. Finally, among the controlled variables, field of study, year of study, and university region were discovered to be significant factors in relation to the challenges posed by COVID-19 for international students.

COVID-19 and Distance Learning: International Doctoral Students' Satisfaction With the General Quality of Learning and Aspects of University Support in Russia

Since this catastrophic crisis began, learning at universities has changed to distance mode to reduce person-to-person transmission of the virus. Using a survey, the article compares the experiences of international doctoral students in this COVID crisis with the general quality of learning and their experiences with various aspects of university support. The descriptive results suggest that the overall satisfaction with the general quality of learning was quite high among both Russian-speaking and English-speaking students. There were no statistically significant differences between English-speaking and Russian-speaking doctoral students. However, there was a statistically significant difference in fields of study, with international doctoral students in medical sciences being the most dissatisfied with the general quality of learning. After comparing international doctoral students' experiences with various aspects of university support, the results further reveal that English-speaking international doctoral students were dissatisfied with access to laboratory equipment, software for working on a dissertation, and library services the most. The article advocates that universities provide and improve their support systems, especially by making laboratory equipment, software for working on dissertations, and library services more accessible to English-speaking international doctoral students during this pandemic, to give them a positive learning experience. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Public Organization Review is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Fostering Trust, Transparency, Satisfaction and Participation Amidst COVID-19 corruption: Does the Civil Society Matter? – Evidence from Ghana

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has erupted corruption challenges across polities including Ghana. This situation has spurred anecdotal narratives underscoring a decline in citizens’ trust, transparency perceptions, satisfaction and participation in pandemic activism, and thus catapulted civil society discourses into prominence. Therefore, we investigate civil society imperativeness to trust, transparency, satisfaction and participation, whilst mitigating corruption. Results (n = 375) of structural equation modeling revealed the negative impact of corruption on trust, satisfaction and transparency. Whereas, trust and transparency were revealed to be significant to satisfaction and participation, the civil society’s efficacy was confirmed. Based on these, research and policy implications are proffered. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Public Organization Review is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)