The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted education systems worldwide, leading the World Bank, UNESCO and UNICEF to call it the “worst education crisis on record”.
Teaching, research and service to society – the core missions of higher education – were significantly impacted and required quick responses from all stakeholders. Higher education internationalisation has been particularly hard hit.
The global connectivity that internationalisation promotes was suddenly at odds with measures to curb the spread of the virus. Thus, the challenges brought to internationalisation by the global pandemic have been both broad and profound.
Higher education systems and institutions across the world were impacted by and responded differently to these challenges, yet common trends exist. In a recent Special Issue on Internationalisation of Higher Education in Pandemic Time in a Global and Comparative Perspective, we bring together research on general and specific challenges to internationalisation from regions across the world.
The nine case studies included in the issue bring together experiences from Asia, the Pacific, Europe and North and South America. Taken together, the articles highlight an array of common challenges and responses from institutional and national actors to shape a ‘new normal’.
Academic (im)mobility
Academic mobility of students and staff, the most prevalent aspect of internationalisation, faced a rapid decline and some countries were more affected than others. Despite differences in degree, in all regions of the world the pandemic has brought a turn to immobility.
Widespread restrictions in international travel disrupted the physical movement of students and academics across borders.
Overall, the impacts of the pandemic are more evident and considerable in countries that have traditionally attracted many inbound international students, such as Australia, the United Kingdom and the US. The decrease in numbers may be due to a mix of individual changes in preferences and the effect of national policies on the choice of study destination.
Rethinking internationalisation strategies
While disruptions to physical international academic mobility flows were significant, the impact of the pandemic was more profound. Higher education institutions faced major financial concerns, delays in research and teaching activities, a downturn in overall recruitment and overworked staff.
Institutions used the opportunity (or were forced) to rethink the heavy focus on mobility and to reposition internationalisation from an exceptional activity confined to the international office, to a transversal activity integrated into the institutional mission.
Higher education cooperation is growing in importance. In Europe the pandemic seems to have had immediate repercussions on internationalisation strategy execution and increased the gap between strategy and implementation, while network participation provided a tool to address encountered challenges and to support strategic adaptations.
In the UK, universities and colleges used their partners’ overseas campuses and online provision to support international students in their home country.
The scaling-up of virtual mobility has enabled many students to enjoy the benefits of international education without its high costs. Evidence from China suggests that students appreciate the flexibility and economic advantages of virtual mobility and that such programmes are here to stay. A slump in mobility from China, the largest sending country of international students, can have important global repercussions for internationalisation.
Old vs new normal
The effects of the pandemic are still unfolding. Expecting to completely return to the ‘old normal’ from before the pandemic is a natural inclination, but an unlikely eventuality.
The challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic have forced higher education systems and institutions to try new approaches to internationalisation that go beyond mobility. This is a welcome development.
However, taking stock of global challenges in a comparative perspective also revealed that the pandemic has heightened inequalities between individuals, institutions and systems. Policy-makers and institutional leaders must be wary of perpetuating inequality in access to internationalisation opportunities.
More: https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220516172709867