ABSTRACT
Utilizing findings from more than 200 interviews with students, staff, and faculty at a US university, this volume explores the immediate and real-life impacts of COVID-19 on individuals to inform higher education policy and practice in times of crisis. Documenting the profound impacts that COVID-19 had on university operations and teaching, this book foregrounds a range of participant perspectives on key topics such as institutional leadership and loss of community, managing motivation and the move to online teaching and learning, and coping with the adverse mental health effects caused by the pandemic. Far from dwelling on the negative, the volume frames the lived experiences and implications of COVID-19 for higher education through a positive, progressive lens, and considers how institutions can best support individual and collective thriving during times of crisis. This book will benefit researchers, academics, and educators in higher education with an interest in the sociology of education, higher education management, and eLearning more broadly. Those specifically interested in student affairs practice, as well as the administration of higher education, will also benefit from this book. The chapters describe the experiences of students, staff, and faculty at the University of Utah as they adapted to the new COVID-19 reality in spring and summer 2020. The logistics of adjusting to online learning and working, the juggling act of managing their online learning and teaching while taking on responsibility for the learning of children in their homes, the reality of a struggling economy, and the social-political environment of a presidential election year and a burgeoning racial justice movement provide the backdrop for the experiences described in this monograph. This study has important implications for higher education leaders. It offers an in-depth and institutionally broad view of how different higher education stakeholders experienced the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Although higher education has engaged in blended learning since the early 1990s and its benefits are well catalogued, research often focuses on individual programmes and less on how institutions envision and engage with it to enhance learning and teaching. This article provides a pre-Covid 19 pandemic snapshot of cross-institutional UK policy and practice, through an interpretative, qualitative study of strategy documents and expert interviews. Findings show that while not prominent in pre-pandemic published institutional strategies, commitments to blended learning are expressed in terms of flexibility, inclusivity and accessibility, recognising the need for structures and support. Experts identify strategic leadership, governance structures, professional development and ongoing support as important requirements for large-scale adoption. The article concludes that blended learning, pre-pandemic, had not normalised. Post-pandemic, to normalise blended learning and support sustained widespread adoption, institutions should heed research literature recommendations and devise institutional visions that establish support, structure and shared strategy. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
ABSTRACT
The 1988 Dawkins reforms were designed, at least in part, to encourage public universities to organize themselves as if they were corporate enterprises, in order to create a more efficient and competitive sector that was less reliant on government funding. This paper assesses whether successive policy changes since the 1988 Dawkins reforms have achieved these efficiency, competition, and funding objectives. It does so by examining their financial performance over time, applying the techniques employed by investment analysts in the private sector to assess the performance of market participants. It demonstrates that the policy changes have reduced efficiency and competitiveness, and weakened the financial position of a number of universities. It provides empirical support for previous research highlighting the significant structural and regulatory constraints on the creation of a competitive market in higher education. Furthermore, it demonstrates that 35 years of policy change have merely reinforced pre-existing market positions and that, even before the impact of the COVID pandemic is considered, the financial position of the sector has been weakened as a result of the changes. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
ABSTRACT
The coronavirus pandemic caused a shift in the American higher education system. Many institutions switched from in-person to virtual platforms. Since graduate and professional students are more likely than undergraduate students to enroll in a hybrid or online program, they were less affected by the transition to online education. However, the decrease in undergraduate enrollment during the pandemic further squeezed institutional finances showing a decline in international graduate enrollment in the United States. As universities place additional scrutiny on program finances, departments will face pressure to reduce the number of assistantships that are not supported by external grants and contracts, which will disproportionately affect international enrollment. Additionally, the large graduate and professional student loan debt and benefits they receive from repayment plans are issues. Congress and the U.S. Department of Education may pursue efforts to limit the benefits that graduate and professional students receive from the federal student loan program.
ABSTRACT
This research embraces medical and social issues that lead to changes particularly in the activities of higher education systems, focusing first of all, on the functioning of higher education institutions in the context of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the "quarantine" period. This research is designed to attract the attention of decision-makers and society in general to the importance of a focus on mental health in the higher-education system and to highlight these issues as a part of educational policy in the process of adapting to new living conditions during and after the quarantine period. As educators in different universities, we have noticed many shifts in energy and mood in ourselves and our students during the tsunami of changes brought on by COVID-19. As the way we deliver education pivots and pivots again, rather than just weather these changes, this research seeks to identify just what those changes are, how they are being addressed and the impact of them. The article analyses the reasons that brought the world community to actively study the social, psychological and mental consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on students and staff of higher-education institution in general. Special attention in the article is given to the peculiarities of maintaining and saving the psychological health of students in conditions of chronic fatigue, overwork and ongoing stress. Based on the existing strategic` analysis and through the prism of the COVID-19 determinants, the main directions for changes in higher education institutions are proposed so as to preserve the mental health of people in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, during the period of quarantine, and following.
ABSTRACT
Extensive research suggests that ideal worker and mothering expectations have long constrained academic mothers' personal and professional choices. This article explores how academic mothers experienced their dual roles amid the unprecedented shift in the work-life landscape due to COVID-19. Content analysis of questionnaire data (n = 141) suggests that academic mothers experienced significant bidirectional work-life conflict well into the fall of 2020. Increased home demands, such as caring for young children and remote schooling, interfered with their perceived capacity to meet ideal academic norms, including a singular focus on work, productivity standards, and their ability to signal job competency and commitment. Likewise, work demands reduced their perceived ability to meet ideal mothering norms, such as providing a nurturing presence and focusing on their children's achievement. Academic fathers experienced increased demands on their time but primarily described intra-role conflict within the work domain. Despite a pandemic landscape, ideal academic and mothering norms remained persistent and unchanged. The article concludes with implications for policy and practice in higher education.
ABSTRACT
Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is transmitted predominantly through the air in crowded and unventilated indoor spaces among unvaccinated people. Universities and colleges are potential settings for its spread. Methods: An interdisciplinary team from public health, virology, and biology used narrative methods to summarise and synthesise evidence on key control measures, taking account of mode of transmission. Results: Evidence from a wide range of primary studies supports six measures. Vaccinate (aim for > 90% coverage and make it easy to get a jab). Require masks indoors, especially in crowded settings. If everyone wears well-fitting cloth masks, source control will be high, but for maximum self-protection, respirator masks should be worn. Masks should not be removed for speaking or singing. Space people out by physical distancing (but there is no "safe" distance because transmission risk varies with factors such as ventilation, activity levels and crowding), reducing class size (including offering blended learning), and cohorting (students remain in small groups with no cross-mixing). Clean indoor air using engineering controls-ventilation (while monitoring CO 2 levels), inbuilt filtration systems, or portable air cleaners fitted with high efficiency particulate air [HEPA] filters). Test asymptomatic staff and students using lateral flow tests, with tracing and isolating infectious cases when incidence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is high. Support clinically vulnerable people to work remotely. There is no direct evidence to support hand sanitising, fomite controls or temperature-taking. There is evidence that freestanding plastic screens, face visors and electronic air-cleaning systems are ineffective. Conclusions: The above six evidence-based measures should be combined into a multi-faceted strategy to maximise both student safety and the continuation of in-person and online education provision. Staff and students seeking to negotiate a safe working and learning environment should collect data (e.g. CO 2 levels, room occupancy) to inform conversations.