Publication Type
Book Chapter
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
7-2022
Abstract
The impact of the COVID pandemic, and concomitant public health interventions, on university operations and finances is unprecedented in its scope and scale. This chapter provides, firstly, a panorama of the challenges of tertiary teaching and learning in a socially distanced world as well as of the fiscal impact of the pandemic on universities. Secondly, it is an experience-informed personal reflection on the lessons that university instructors, researchers, and leaders can learn from the events of the past year to be more effective in sub-optimal environments, both as individuals and as members of the larger society. Finally, it presents an argument that while the pandemic itself will probably only leave a scar in the long run, the questions that it has asked of universities are existential. In particular, how will the modern, ‘internationalised’ university evolve in response to geopolitical changes and rising parochialism? In general, what is the contemporary social relevance of the university? While this chapter lacks the remit or the capacity to answer these questions, it contends that the universities that will endure will be the ones that are agile and adaptable enough to remap their roles in a volatile world.
Keywords
Universities, pandemics, COVID-19, geopolitical changes
Discipline
Asian Studies | Education Policy | Higher Education | Public Health
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Managing complexity and Covid-19: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
Editor
Aurobindo Ghosh, Amit Haldar, & Kalyan Bhaumik
First Page
1
Last Page
16
ISBN
9781032115160
Identifier
10.4324/9781003218807-3
Publisher
Routledge
City or Country
Abingdon
Citation
KONG, Lily, & Patra, Sovan. (2022). Universities in and beyond a pandemic. In Managing complexity and Covid-19: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (pp. 1-16). Abingdon: Routledge.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3630
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003218807-3
Included in
Asian Studies Commons, Education Policy Commons, Higher Education Commons, Public Health Commons