Universities in the World amid COVID-19 pandemic

By Dr. Rex Casiple

 

Higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world, confronting the COVID-19 pandemic, are studying how to move forward with classes next year. In the past seven months the Covid-19 pandemic caused a massive education experiment in several countries including top universities. Almost all teaching and learning processes in higher education in America and in many countries in the world shifted online for an indefinite period of time. This is to continue the schooling of students in the tertiary level despite the pandemic. Full online education has been our stronghold in higher education against this pandemic. So far there is no good substitute for it. Our top universities in the world stick in this kind of teaching-learning system.

In Cambridge University, all lectures will be online until the summer of 2021. It was the first British university to move all student lectures online. There will be no face-to-face lectures at the University. All teachings at the university were moved online, while examinations are being carried out virtually. Oxford University intended to use face-to-face and online teaching at the start of the new academic year in October. The university has used online teaching and assessment in April. Graduation ceremonies had been canceled.

Classes in California State University, the largest four-year public university system in the United States, are almost exclusively online with some possible exceptions for clinical classes in the nursing program or certain science laboratories. Also, McGill University in Montreal, Canada offered most of its courses online. The University of Manchester said it has moved all lectures online this September. Edinburgh University said it would adopt a “hybrid model” rather than going fully virtual.

The University of Ottawa announced that it will be the first university in Ontario, Canada to open its own on-campus COVID-19 assessment center.  The center will only be open to students, staff and faculty members of the university. This on-campus testing facility will support people working and learning on campus and will ensure they have all the tools and resources they need to stay safe. The testing center is a collaboration between the University and the Ottawa Hospital. The university expected to welcome back this month of September about two-thirds of its researchers, approximately 5,000 students who are enrolled in courses that have in-person learning requirements, as well as a small number of faculty members and staff.

Trent University in Canada has provided 500 Chromebooks or laptops to students who may have no financial or technological resources to fully participate in remote learning. The university has raised a big amount from donors for what it is calling the Remote Learning Initiative. Other universities provided laptops to students as initiatives through loan programs. This Trent program is unique because the Chromebooks or laptops provided to students will be a permanent gift. Laboratory classes at Concordia University in Canada are done at home.

In General Chemistry I classes, for example, professors sent students their very own mini-lab kits. These laboratory kits can be used by the students for their hands-on experience while following the class lectures online at home. The kits include laboratory glassware, such as beakers, flasks, and graduated cylinders; a weighing balance; and a burette. The professors have prepared experiments using ingredients they easily find at home or in a grocery store, such as vinegar, salt, rubbing alcohol, rice and paper clips. This makes students’ assignments easy and safe to do at home.

Hong Kong University planned to move to a gradual and partial return to face-to-face teaching using hybrid teaching methods. The country’s infection rates are far lower than in the West. Daily new infection cases in mainland China and Hong Kong number in the single digits. Those figures are nearly zero in Taiwan and Macao. However, in the absence of the COVID-19 vaccine, most of the universities in Asia are still using online teaching-learning system.