scholarly journals Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Life of Higher Education Students: A Global Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksander Aristovnik ◽  
Damijana Keržič ◽  
Dejan Ravšelj ◽  
Nina Tomaževič ◽  
Lan Umek

The paper presents the most comprehensive and large-scale study to date on how students perceive the impacts of the first wave of COVID-19 crisis in early 2020 on various aspects of their lives on a global level. With a sample of 30,383 students from 62 countries, the study reveals that amid the worldwide lockdown and transition to online learning students were most satisfied with the support provided by teaching staff and their universities’ public relations. Still, deficient computer skills and the perception of a higher workload prevented them from perceiving their own improved performance in the new teaching environment. Students were mainly concerned about issues to do with their future professional career and studies, and experienced boredom, anxiety, and frustration. The pandemic has led to the adoption of particular hygienic behaviours (e.g., wearing masks, washing hands) and discouraged certain daily practices (e.g., leaving home, shaking hands). Students were also more satisfied with the role played by hospitals and universities during the epidemic compared to the governments and banks. The findings also show that students with certain socio-demographic characteristics (male, part-time, first-level, applied sciences, a lower living standard, from Africa or Asia) were significantly less satisfied with their academic work/life during the crisis, whereas female, full-time, first-level students and students faced with financial problems were generally affected more by the pandemic in terms of their emotional life and personal circumstances. Key factors influencing students’ satisfaction with the role of their university are also identified. Policymakers and higher education institutions around the world may benefit from these findings while formulating policy recommendations and strategies to support students during this and any future pandemics.

Author(s):  
Aleksander Aristovnik ◽  
Damijana Keržič ◽  
Dejan Ravšelj ◽  
Nina Tomaževič ◽  
Lan Umek

The paper presents the most comprehensive and large-scale study to date on how students perceive the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on various aspects of their lives on a global level. With a sample of 30,383 students from 62 countries, the study reveals that amid the worldwide lockdown and transition to online learning students were most satisfied with the support provided by teaching staff and their universities’ public relations. Still, deficient computer skills and the perception of a higher workload prevented them from perceiving their own improved performance in the new teaching environment. Students were mainly concerned about issues to do with their future professional career and studies, and experienced boredom, anxiety and frustration. The pandemic has led to the adoption of particular hygienic behaviours (e.g. wearing masks, washing hands) and discouraged certain daily practices (e.g. leaving home, shaking hands). Students were also more satisfied with the role played by hospitals and universities during the epidemic compared to the government and banks. The findings also show that students with selected socio-demographic characteristics (male, part-time, first level, applied sciences, lower living standard, from Africa or Asia) were generally more strongly affected by the pandemic since they were significantly less satisfied with their academic work/life. Key factors influencing students' satisfaction with the role of their university are also identified. Policymakers and higher education institutions around the world may benefit from these findings while formulating policy recommendations and strategies to support students during this and any future pandemics.


Author(s):  
Aleksander Aristovnik ◽  
Damijana Keržič ◽  
Dejan Ravšelj ◽  
Nina Tomaževič ◽  
Lan Umek

The paper aims to present the most comprehensive and large-scale study to date of students’ perceived impacts of COVID-19 crisis on different aspects of their lives on a global level. The study with a sample of 30,383 students from 62 countries reveals that due to worldwide lockdown and transition to online learning students were most satisfied with the support of teaching staff and universities’ public relations. Nevertheless, a lack of computer skills and the perception of increased workload prevented them from perceiving higher performance in a new teaching environment. Students were mainly concerned about their future professional career and studying issues, and were feeling boredom, anxiety and frustration. The pandemic encouraged some hygienic behaviors (i.e. wearing masks, washing hands) and discouraged certain daily habits (i.e. leaving home, shaking hands). Students were also more satisfied with the role of hospitals and universities during the epidemic, compared to government and banks. Further findings demonstrate that students with selected sociodemographic characteristics (male, part-time, first level, applied sciences, lower living standard, from Africa or Asia) were, in general, more strongly affected by the pandemic as they were significantly less satisfied with their academic work/life. Key factors influencing students' satisfaction with the role of university have also been identified. Policymakers and higher education institutions worldwide may benefit from these findings when formulating policy recommendations and tactics on how to support students during the pandemic.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 59-75
Author(s):  
M. A. Golovchin

In 2016-2018 the state in Russia adopted a package of program documents, which implies the transfer of education to the large-scale introduction of digital technologies. This phenomenon has been called “digitalization of education”. In scientific literature, electronization and digitalization are increasingly called one of the institutional traps for the development of Russian universities, since the corresponding institutional environment has not yet been formed due to the forced nature of innovations. As a result, the processes of introducing new technologies into education are still not regulated. Within the framework of the purpose of the study, the manifestations of the trap of electronization and digitalization of Russian higher education were analyzed on the basis of sociological data, and the theoretical modeling of the process of adaptation of educational agents to the institution of digitalization was carried out.In the course of the study, the approaches were summarized that have been developed in discussions on educational digitalization. The article presents the author’s vision of the studied phenomenon as an institutional trap; as well as understanding of the institutional features and characteristics of electronization and digitalization in education.The research method is the analysis of estimates obtained in the course of an expert survey which was conducted by the Vologda Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences among the representatives of the teaching staff of state universities in the Vologda region. In the course of this analysis, the indicators of educational digitalization as an effective innovation were clarified such as an increased accessibility of educational resources; simplification of communication and the process of transferring knowledge from teacher to student; increased opportunities for training specialists for the new (digital) economy; improving the quality of education in universities, etc. Based on the results of the empirical study, it has been determined that the conditions for the development of digitalization in Russian universities are currently ambiguous, which is closely related to the level of competitiveness of the educational organization.The scientific novelty of the research consists in the presentation of an original matrix describing the process of university employees adaptation to the conditions of digital transformation of education. The matrix is proposed on the basis of a sociological analysis of the impact of the trap of electronization and digitalization on the activities of educational agents. The matrix can be taken into account in the practice of higher education management.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-142
Author(s):  
Valentin Maier

Abstract: Although communist regimes gave priority to technical higher education, artistic higher education also received a small, but constant share of the allocated study places and resources. This study outlines both the general features of this field, and its statistical evolution. After 1948, artistic higher education (music, fine and decorative arts, film, theatre and television) went through many changes in order to adapt to communist requirements. This paper presents some of the most important changes, what caused them, as well as their consequences. The statistical reconstruction of artistic higher education mainly focuses on the last 30 years of communism, on full-time studies and on four important indicators: total number of students, freshmen, graduates and total number of teaching staff.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1 SI) ◽  
pp. 43-45
Author(s):  
Sergiy Kandziuba

Traditional methods, tools and forms of training of civil servants require a significant number of additional highly qualified teaching staff, an increase in the number of educational institutions for training, retraining and advanced training, frequent and long absences from work. All this is time and money, which our country is very short of.The way out of this situation is a large-scale transition to a qualitatively new level of full-time and part-time education - distance education.The experience of the NAPA DRID shows that the use of the G Suite for Education package allows to quickly and efficiently create a single information and educational space for training and retraining of public servants in the region.


Author(s):  
Tatiana Muzychuk ◽  
Anna Bychkova

Currently, one can observe accelerated implementation of high-tech solutions including those developed on the basis of artificial intelligence in various sectors of economy and public relations, in particular, in education. In this regard, the article discusses the main challenges that the 4th industrial revolution poses to the higher education system. These challenges include the automation of a number of professions; lack of competent personnel; digitalization of the educational process, etc. The prospects of introducing a blockchain to fix personal achievements in the context of the development of artificial intelligence technologies in particular, are highlighted. The possibilities of processing large volumes of data (Big Data) are described in order to create ratings of universities, departments and teaching staff. The experience of introducing artificial intelligence technologies into the creation of an individual educational path and the formation of a «digital footprint» at the STI University «20.35» is analyzed. Namely, the creation of a digital fingerprint and its application; building a student’s optimal development path; effective team building and improving the effectiveness of e-learning are considered. The conclusion is made about the need to preserve the universal basic component of higher education.


2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mireia Asensio ◽  
Janice Whatley ◽  
Chris Jones

This paper reflects on the experiences of a particular tutor taking over a specific course. It is an example of a common situation found in higher education (HE) institutions, when newly appointed or temporary part-time or full-time staff are hired to teach courses that have been designed and developed by other members of teaching staff. The experience of this particular tutor may help us to illuminate the role that tutors have more generally in networked learning environments. For the purpose of clarification, we define networked learning as 'learning in which C&IT is used to promote connections between one learner and other learners, between learners and tutors, between a learning community and its learning resources'.DOI:10.1080/0968776010090307 


Author(s):  
Тетяна Михайлівна Власюк

This article provides an assessment of the staffing level in Ukraine’s education system by the following criteria: number of academic and teaching staff dynamics for higher education institutions of Ukraine (III–IV accreditation levels) and their concentration by regions; the dynamics of postgraduate and doctoral programs performance indicators and research degree students concentration by regions; the structure (the ratio) of full-time employees in the area of education against the overall employment structure by types of business activity; employee movement indicators in Ukraine’s education system. A comprehensive integrated assessment of quantitative and qualitative dimensions of human resources is critical in terms of reflecting the current state and trends in the education system development. Based on the evaluation results, it is revealed that the number of academic and teaching staff in education institutions tends to decrease over the years, as well as the number of employees having research degrees and academic ranks. The negative downward trend has also been observed in the number of postgraduate students in the analyzed period. It is reported that the highest concentration of personnel engaged in higher education is observed in the city of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa regions. The Analysis of employee movement in the education sector showed that in 2018, the intensity of education staff inflow exceeded the intensity of its outflow, which is a positive trend that contributes to reducing the load per vacancy. To retain and enhance the staffing capacity, it is recommended to reduce the academic workload for University teaching staff as an incentive to facilitate their further realization as researches; create sectoral clusters with the involvement of education entities that will contribute to increasing funding for research and technological development; to motivate more active participation of higher education institutions in a range of international research programs, grant and scholarship schemes and competitions which will help to boost academic staff mobility and exchange of best practice among international partners.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1 (339)) ◽  
pp. 221-232
Author(s):  
Iryna Trubavina ◽  
◽  
Anna Martyniuk ◽  

The article reveals the relevance of the program for training pedagogical and scientific-pedagogical employees of secondary and higher education institutions in effective teaching methods. The article defines the scientific basis (approaches) to the development of content programs: competence, activity, system, personality-oriented, androgynous, pragmatic approaches, theories of learning content. Also substantiated on the basis of scientific approaches and a survey of major stakeholders in the Kharkiv region (teachers of secondary schools education, research and teaching staff of higher education institutions, heads of educational institutions) the content of such a program, guidelines for its implementation, to the forms and methods of teaching. The main methods of teaching the program there are active, interactive and independent methods. The main forms of the program are training in a microgroup, training. The article presents the content of the regional educational program through 3 modules: «The concept of effective teaching methods for students of general secondary education», «The essence of teaching methods and conditions of their application», «Features of effective teaching methods in different disciplines». Prospects for further research are experimental testing of the program and its correction for distance, blended, full-time learning.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Birhanu Sintayehu ◽  
Anwar Ahmed Hussien

Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of needs suggests that human beings cannot reach the level of self-actualization in the event that their basic needs are not properly fulfilled, i.e., physiological needs and needs related to security. This study is an effort to test the theory against the living standard of instructors of Haramaya University (the researchers explore where academic staff are leveled). A qualitative approach was employed to make an empirical investigation of living conditions of instructors in this particular university and its implication on imparting quality education. To do so, the study was attempted from a phenomenographic viewpoint by identifying four themes of conceptions of living standards of academic staff. These include (1) salary, (2) housing, (3) job security, and (4) self-esteem. The findings of the study revealed that, among other things, poor living conditions of higher education staff, rising living cost, inadequate monthly salaries, derisory housing allowances, and lack of job security made it extremely difficult to change the workplace and resulted in low morale and poor self-esteem of the teaching staff. It is difficult to imagine high-quality education without high-quality instructors. To improve the quality of higher education, basic needs of academic staff must be met; educational inputs must be fulfilled, and the teaching profession should be made more attractive and an important priority of the government.


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