Helping Parents During School Closures and Beyond

COVID-19 has created life-altering issues across the globe. The pandemic forced schools and parents to change the way they approach children's education and many are concerned about children falling behind. Parental responsibilities increased greatly during the pandemic, as they tried to manage their family's finances, ensure their family's health, and balance work with guiding their children's academic endeavors. Despite valiant efforts by school districts, many were not adequately prepared for prolonged closures. Although the pandemic created many obstacles, it also presented an outreach opportunity for those in higher education who could help parents navigate a distance-learning environment that was new to many. Parents needed support programs that focused on academics, stress, and parenting. The Texas A&M International University developed a virtual parent camp that capitalized on teacher's backgrounds in curriculum, counseling, and kinesiology. The camps focused on helping parents with learning strategies, mental health issues, and physical activity. They combined elements of Inspire Teaching and Learning, Harmony Social and Emotional Learning, and Healthy People 2020 Goals, providing parents with the tools to help their children succeed.

The Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak on International Student Mobility: Analysis, Response Strategies and Experience from China

The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has had a huge impact on international higher education. As the largest exporter of international students, China bore the brunt. Facing the uncertainty of health and overseas study policy brought by the pandemic, Chinese students and international students in China are all waiting and considering whether to abandon or change their study abroad plans. In this article, we analyze the impact of the pandemic on the mobility of different international student groups in China and discuss China's higher education countermeasures from the perspectives of government, higher education institutions (HEIs), academic researchers, students, and service agencies for studying abroad. China's experience in combating COVID-19 can offer valuable lessons for global student mobility and international higher education, including building up a top-down government-led management system, a collaborative network of different stakeholders, and fighting the pandemic with international education cooperation.

Career Services and College-Employer Partnership Practices "in" Community Colleges: Colleges in California, Ohio, and Texas

Community colleges play a key role in driving talent development in the United States, producing workers with the kinds of training that employers need while enhancing economic mobility for students. There has been a push among policymakers at the federal and state levels to hold community colleges accountable for the employment outcomes of their students, with funding and legislation that endorses models that strengthen college partnerships with employers. In this report, the authors systemically examine the type of career services and college-employer partnership practices in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields across three states -- California, Ohio, and Texas -- and a sample of community colleges that operate within them. In addition, the authors investigate the challenges that these colleges face in facilitating student employment and the ways in which state policies may have influenced practice. They reviewed state policies and collected interview data from 134 participants, including state and system leaders, college leaders, program heads and faculty, career service leaders and staff, and employers.

Global Universities' Leadership during COVID-19: Synergistic Knowledge Production to Mitigate an Endemic Crisis

The role universities play in advancing COVID-specific knowledge and long-term management of this global crisis is largely unknown. In this comparative perspective study, we document the ways in which members from universities in the US, New Zealand, Italy, South Korea, and China engage in activities to respond to the pandemic. We frame this study with consortium-style emergency management and continuity planning (Friedman et al., 2014, Mann, 2007) and apply the sensemaking knowledge management framework (Choo, 1998) to identify strategies that university members employ to generate new scientific knowledge on COVID-19. Our findings reveal that response to the pandemic varies by university stratification, specifically by size and research capacity. At the time of this study, we identified three distinct lenses by which university members position their leadership and research on COVID. Universities from China utilized a post-pandemic approach. Whereas universities in the US, Italy, New Zealand, and South Korea approach their COVID research activities using an evolving-pandemic anticipatory lens and focus on Synergistic Knowledge Production (SKP) on current and future pandemics by engaging in a range of collaborative and interdisciplinary research activities with members of regional universities. Findings also provide policy implications for university-led responses to global health challenges. [Note: The page range (146-160) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range is 146-161.]

"Community College Students and the Pandemic:" A Review of "Inside Higher Ed's" Special Report

In this monumental time of social change, community college news and reports need to be at the forefront of all professionals working in higher education- not just those who work in these unique institutions. Why? There are several reasons, each of which become more apparent while flipping through the pages of Inside Higher Ed's special report "Community College Students and the Pandemic" (St. Amour 2020). To start, higher education is an ecosystem of institutional types, each reliant upon one another to help students and families move up the socioeconomic and education ladders. Interconnectedness, especially during the current crises facing higher education, is a strength as higher education professionals support those whose mobility between institutions has never been more critical. In addition, community college professionals certainly have a front seat view of what truly challenges students and their families when it comes to access to and completion of higher education. Community college stories, both of their students and the institutions themselves, are triumphant, gritty, celebratory, and very, very real. Now is the time for higher education professionals from all corners of the field and institution types to learn from one another. Expand the reports that are read;avoid the temptation to scroll past the headlines not aligned to specific disciplines, functional areas, and communities of practice. This article discuses Inside Higher Ed's "Community College Students and the Pandemic" (St. Amour 2020), a comprehensive collection of the most salient issues in higher education.

Academic Silver Linings in a Philippine State University amid the Early Stages of Pandemic Cases

The primary role of the academe is knowledge building, however, due to the prevailing digital divide, some institutions of higher learning were not able to offer even Emergency Online Teaching (EOT) for continuous formal education during the early stages of the pandemic. This article highlights diversified ways that a state university from a developing country (Philippines) responded to the crisis to offer assistance towards the social development of the stakeholders amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Higher Education for Democracy: The Role of the University in Civil Society

Democracy and higher education are inextricably linked: universities not only have the ability to be key arbiters of how democracy is advanced, but they also need to reflect democratic values in their practices, objectives, and goals. Framed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing crisis of structural racism, "Higher Education for Democracy" explores academe's role in advancing democracy by using a cross-national comparison of Los Angeles, New Delhi, and Hong Kong to develop strategies that universities can employ to strengthen democracy and resist fascism. William G. Tierney argues that if academe is to be a progenitor in the advancement of democracy, then we need to consider five areas of change that have been significant across national contexts amid both globalization and neoliberalism: inequality, privatization, the public good, identity, and academic freedom. Taking a comparative approach and drawing on scholarly literature, archival research, and interviews, "Higher Education for Democracy" aims to understand these changes and their implications and to position higher education in defense of democracy in a globalized economy framed by fascism.

The Many Contexts of the Social Responsibilities of Universities

It has long been established that universities have three main functions: to teach, to research and supervise research, and to benefit the communities and regions in which they are located. In reality, the third main function permeates the other two. There are clearly social responsibilities to the students and to the staff who teach them and/or maintain their well-being through administration and other services such as counselling. Including issues of physical, social and economic well-being in their research portfolios is also common, though not universal. In this paper, we take a spatial scale approach to social responsibilities, which can take us from social responsibilities within the university, through what might be termed 'civic responsibilities', on to the immediate populations of a town or city, and then to 'regional and international responsibilities'. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in line with the sector's social responsibility dynamic is also examined.