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Now that the education system seems to return to normal after the pandemic, it is time to follow up on its impact after almost three years of disruption. With this in mind, last year, UNESCO published the book Resuming or reforming? Tracking the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education after two years of disruption. Dana Abdrasheva, Mauricio Escribens, Emma Sabzalieva, Daniele Vieira do Nascimento, and Clarisa Yerovi, authors of the book, point out that the impact of the pandemic has been “diverse, profound and varies from one institution to another and from one country to another. Higher education institutions (HEIs), students, faculty, and staff have shown great effort to be resilient and quickly adapt to systemic changes.” For the researchers, the purpose of this publication is to detail the lessons learned and conclusions that may be useful for the future.
Most educational institutions are reassessing their role concerning the well-being of their community. When the outbreaks of the virus began to increase, the first response of the schools was to close their doors and rely on existing technologies to continue with their activities, prioritizing pedagogical continuity and ensuring the health and well-being of students, teachers, and staff.
The UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNESCO IESALC) has closely followed the impact of the pandemic on higher education around the world. It has published results from more than 100 surveyed Latin American universities in May 2020, July 2021, and now 2022. Part of their purpose in sharing these findings is to inform the academic community of the current impact of the pandemic, including reopening strategies in the region, and to map how they opened their doors in 2021. It also includes observations that may be useful to guide future actions.
The impact of COVID-19 on administration and management staff
As schools began to close, higher education institutions (HEIs) immediately launched crisis management, yet only some were based on evidence from past experiences. The best practices are characterized by being flexible, having good communication, creating teams specialized in crisis management, and digitizing processes. The latter is not just about online learning, but about giving administrative staff the opportunity to continue their activities from home. HEIs must establish policies and procedures to increase long-term resilience and prepare in case something like this happens again. Although much of what is needed to digitize administrative processes and learning depends on infrastructure, institutions must improve their response to a crisis. It is not just patching but also creating practices based on experience and data.
The pandemic has affected all aspects of education, not only what has to do with teaching but also how schools are managed or administered. An essential part was leadership since
institutional management policies depend on this. Also, during times of crisis, they must be able to delegate responsibilities, communicate appropriately and connect with people.
Another vital aspect was institutional finance, as the pandemic also created an economic and development crisis. For starters, enrollment, and enrollment suffered as many students had to suspend or postpone their studies; this without counting international students. One of the most affected sources of income was renting campus spaces for events such as conferences, plays, musical or sports activities, and exhibitions, among others. In addition, they also lost money in vacating the dormitories or residences, food services such as cafeterias, parking, donations, and continuous training, among others. This situation opened the opportunity for HEIs to review their business and financing model and look for ways to diversify their income to be less vulnerable in future crises.
An essential aspect of the impact of COVID-19 on administration and management was how IT services were handled, as IT services were the backbone of online teaching and learning during institutional closures. Still, the authors of the study found little information on “how university IT administrators managed their work during the pandemic.”
On the other hand, they found plenty of information about mental health. The confinement, the economic crisis, the loss of loved ones, and the change in life due to the restrictions, among other factors, were “a catalyst for strong feelings of stress, anxiety and, in some cases, depression.” Many HEIs implemented or improved their online mental health services, and others created a hotline or virtual platform for psychological support. Some of these solutions led to the hiring of additional psychologists to handle the crisis and to be able to have better meetings with the students. “However, in some cases, it appears that mental health services have not been used as needed,” the authors explain. At one surveyed university, individual sessions trended downward, as did group sessions. “Similarly, in other cases, the majority of students with moderate or severe symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression did not receive professional help on or off the field.”
Most HEIs had to move their operations to digital formats, allowing their staff to work from home, which was a first for many. Several universities have invested in more effective digital communications and signing programs to weather the lockdown. However, many have abandoned these practices and opted to return to face-to-face activities as soon as possible.
The impact of COVID-19 on teaching and learning
The rapid and near-universal shift from face-to-face to online teaching was striking, yet “the scale and speed of the sudden transition to virtual spaces impacted the quality of teaching.” One of the most significant constraints that education systems encountered was the infrastructure gap and the need for the learning experience. According to the UNESCO book, this resulted in “a slow adaptation to online tools, discovered difficulties in the preparation of class material and the active participation of students.” According to a report by the International Association of Universities (AIU) titled Regional & National Perspectives on the Impact of COVID-19 on Higher Education, in May 2020, about 67% of HEIs switched to online teaching, about a quarter suspended classes while searching for solutions, and 7% ultimately canceled their teaching processes. Because how COVID-19 impacted universities varied from country to country, HEIs responded very
differently from others around the world. Some closed utterly, others stayed open for specific tasks, others operated with social distancing measures, and others closed for a short time. Even so, UNESCO’s book mentions that “the majority of HEIs around the world have experienced at least one of the following phases: i) abrupt closure of the campus, ii) adaptation of the operation of HEIs in conditions of closure, and iii) gradual reopening.”
Adapting to online formats was the primary strategy of universities to ensure pedagogical continuity. This was an abrupt change; it needed to be a solid process planned in the long term to guarantee quality content that had sustained institutional support for students and teachers. The authors of the book explain that “educators are concerned about learning losses and recognize that forced online learning is a compromise rather than an improvement exercise. Consequently, this pedagogical experience has been defined as emergency remote education. The short time in which the transition took place did not effectively prepare and train teachers to adopt the fundamental pedagogies of online learning.”
Teachers have had a heavier workload in the short term as the “typical time to plan, prepare and develop a fully online university course is six to nine months before delivery.” The typical time to plan, prepare, and develop an online college course is six to nine months, but this had to be done overnight due to the coronavirus. Many teachers and HEIs needed to prepare to teach online and require more knowledge, skills, and resources to do so successfully. Many copied and pasted their content into the digital environment without adapting it, demonstrating how necessary training is.
UNESCO’s book indicates that “if adequate training is not provided, this emergency distance learning scenario could overwhelm teachers and lead to poor learning outcomes and teacher frustration.” In 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, they offered massive training programs to strengthen the digital skills of their teachers and promote the efficient use of digital tools needed to create virtual courses and minimize the negative impact on the quality standards of higher education.
Although the confinement caused the transition to teaching and learning online, it opened a window of opportunities in terms of adoption and adaptation to technology, it also brought significant challenges. “Content, pedagogical and assessment tools must be designed specifically for online teaching and learning environments to ensure student engagement and progress.”
The impact of COVID-19 on research
From research capacity, publication processes, and funding, the research area was also severely affected by the pandemic. Still, it was not all bad, COVID-19 caused collaboration to increase, and HEIs played a crucial role in vaccine development. Access to knowledge was expanded as more articles, investigations, and reports were published on open-access servers, and even specific indexed journals temporarily stopped charging to access them.
As mentioned above, the research centers helped develop the vaccines. However, much of the resources had to be reallocated to just that area, leaving other domains underfunded. In addition, other sectors, such as fieldwork, were interrupted by sanitary protocols and had to keep their distance. This made it clear that “researchers starting their careers and doctoral
students have been the most vulnerable in terms of their insertion and stability in the labor market,” according to the study.
Instability in research funding exacerbated job insecurity for researchers, especially newcomers and female scholars. Still, COVID-19 left two positive influences: the focus on the principles behind Open Science as the academic world had to come together and build on accumulated and emerging knowledge. The second influence is reflected in efforts to harness science, inform the general public, and “increase joint research collaboration that transcends borders and other obstacles.”
Its impact is still unresolved over three years after the coronavirus emerged. Even so, UNESCO highlights that “the changes of 2020 and 2021 will not lead to a fundamental transformation in the understanding of higher education as an effort that is hardly face-to-face.” HEIs need to continue with long-term digitization practices to prevent education from returning to pre-pandemic practices and learn from this situation to reform and not just resume.
Translation by Daniel Wetta
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This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
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