Higher education and the COVID-19 pandemic: navigating disruption using the sustainable development goals

Abstract

The COVID-19 health crisis has caused profound social and economic disruptions. Affecting everyone, its impact is not equal. Exacerbating deep social fissures and long-standing systemic inequalities, the pandemic reveals the fragilities and inequities in global higher education. Accelerating underlying trends and triggering seismic shifts in the sector, collective efforts over a period of weeks delivered massive change in a sector not known for being fleet-of-foot. As we envisage the ‘next normal’ for higher education, problems with the ‘old normal’ may be fixed and some recent innovations carried forward. Representing a period of punctuated equilibrium, COVID-19 could lead to transformation of the sector towards greater equity and impact across teaching/learning, research/innovation, community service/engagement and the staff/students’ experience. As we ask, “When will HE open again?”, and “When we do, what will it be like?” we may also find ourselves considering “Will some institutions open at all?” Seeking to navigate these volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous times—so-called VUCA conditions—we propose that the SDGs are positioned as a lens to re-imagine higher education in mounting an antifragility response. We examine whether a new paradigm is forming that could be more sustainable as budgets, priorities and institutional archetypes are challenged fundamentally in line with delivery against the SDGs.

Students academic and social concerns during COVID-19 pandemic

“…This can be achieved by constant communication with them and considering sustainable mental health support as a priority for the university. Purcell and Lumbreras ( 2021 ) stated that the pandemic is a period of punctuated equilibrium. The learnings from this period could lead to transformation in the HEI sector towards more significant equity and impact across teaching/learning, research/innovation, community service/engagement, and the staff/students' experience.…”

Health sciences librarian research and instruction services in pandemic information environments

“…Many educators in higher education were asked to swiftly modify their face-to-face courses as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded with minimal or no institutional support, such as the necessary training and resources for faculty to transition to online learning and digital pedagogy ( Purcell & Lumbreras, 2021 ). This resulted in opportunities for librarians to improve or expand instruction services ( Shin et al, 2021 ).…”

Self-reported adaptability among postgraduate dental learners and their instructors: Accelerated change induced by COVID-19

“…The situation has been novel and seemingly uncontrollable and remains unresolved [ 10 ]. The introduced complexity has been evident on all socioecological levels of higher education, where stakeholders are needing to deal with diverse stressors (including but not limited to: safety concerns, sense of isolation and loneliness, and complete disruption of daily routines), along with mental health difficulties such as isolation and loneliness [ 10 ], and depression and anxiety [ 11 ]. Since these times are unprecedented, there is a substantial amount of ambiguity that all the higher education stakeholders need to deal with [ 11 ]; everyone appears to be resorting to trial-and-error techniques to adapt [ 12 ].…”