As is the case for many parts of our environment, COVID-19 has also made a significant impact on higher-education institutions worldwide. Spanish universities were closed on March 14, 2020 and the national state of emergency was extended until June 21, 2020. In response to school closures, most institutions took measures to continue providing courses online. But, what comes next?
For the remainder of 2020—and most likely 2021, restrictions on global travel will dramatically affect the number of young people studying abroad, resulting in a shortage of students in popular study-abroad destinations like the US, UK, Australia and Canada. Consequently, the actions these institutions are taking today to deal with the uncertainty that still surrounds the coronavirus pandemic will determine if they survive.
What Are Higher Education Institutions Doing Today?
At LEAP, we have seen different approaches in education:
- Educating students on health guidelines and social distancing
- Combination of online with on-campus learning: start online, continue on campus
- Discounts on study programs, introduction of program refund policies
- Loosening admission policies (e.g. IB/IGCSE/National High School exams were postponed this year)
- Conditional admission
- Extending deadlines
The European Association for International Education (EAIE) conducted a survey recently and listed some of the actions that institutions around the world have implemented in the last couple of months:
- Communicate with your students, on-campus and abroad. Be understanding and supporting, provide guidance.
- Establish policies regarding cancelled abroad programs and provide guidance regarding travel restrictions.
- Provide guidance regarding health insurance coverage.
- Offer support to access financial funds where possible.
- Communicate with your partners and strengthen the relationship. This provides great opportunities to plan common webinars, virtual classrooms, SM campaigns, etc.
- Keep your followers and community updated on guidelines provided by your institutions, the WHO and the government.
A New Academic Year on the Horizon
September is approaching soon. Although these are very difficult times, higher education institutions have to plan ahead and remain flexible to the challenges and uncertainty presented by this global crisis. Students, too, have to keep planning their future—online courses are a good starting point.
Online teaching is now one of the hottest topics in higher education. While private institutions with the necessary financial backing have been investing heavily in providing scalable virtual programs for more than a decade, public institutions and universities are currently at the foot of the mountain.
However, it is one thing to provide high-quality, personalized online programs, which students can adapt to easily in terms of modules, rhythm, assessments and new technologies. It is a completely different task to move conservative on-campus learning to conservative distance learning, which is what most public institutions are going through at the moment.
A question that comes to mind as an observer of the digital transformation: what role will technology play in education in 2020 and how will it transform the education industry if the travel ban stays in place longer than expected?
Tom Miessen is CEO & Co-Founder of LEAP Global Educational Consultants, the #1 student consultancy for higher education in Spain. LEAP takes pride in its vast network of more than 30 universities and language schools all over the Iberian Peninsula.