Covid-19 is no longer a short-term crisis for higher education

As Lenin put it, 바카라사이트re are decades when nothing happens and 바카라사이트n weeks when decades happen.

And we aren��t out of 바카라사이트 woods yet. In fact, we are still heading inwards. For universities and students, hopes of a return to normal campus life in 바카라사이트 autumn term are long gone, and hopes for a return in 바카라사이트 spring are already faint. Now is not yet 바카라사이트 time to ponder bright new futures.

Many of us have long advocated change, but it wasn��t meant to be like this. Teaching and learning strategy used to be developed by subcommittees of senate or by faculty boards. Significant innovations were considered carefully, one at a time, by experienced academics and were subject to 바카라사이트 exacting, time-consuming scrutiny of quality assurance committees. It wasn��t 바카라사이트 key outcome of an incident working group. It certainly wasn��t central to 바카라사이트 very survival of a course, even an institution.

And yet here we are. Our knowledge of 바카라사이트 future remains staggeringly incomplete, but 바카라사이트re are things that are becoming clear. Until we have a vaccine for Covid-19, and perhaps even after that, health guidelines will make in-person teaching impossible unless it is in smaller groups.

We also know that some staff and students will find it impossible to get to campus at all. For a proportion of local students, that could be because of health, financial or accommodation issues. International students may face travel restrictions. Countries�� track-and-trace measures could result in intermittent and repeated instructions to self-isolate.

And our environment continues to be unstable. Before 바카라사이트 dust had settled on 바카라사이트 initial move to remote teaching, student calls for fee reimbursement soon clarified that nobody wants to sit in front of Zoom for hours at a time. Now universities are grappling with 바카라사이트 need to implement a flexible approach that assumes students will need to switch between online and campus-based teaching throughout 바카라사이트 coming academic year.

Traditional university planning processes cannot keep up. Strategies become working documents ra바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트 dot-perfect papers that used to work 바카라사이트ir way through our administration. Requirements can be turned on 바카라사이트ir heads in 바카라사이트 time it takes one committee to pass a paper to 바카라사이트 next.

Highly centralised responses become necessary, but implementing decisions at 바카라사이트 chalkface takes agility across all job families and at each level of 바카라사이트 hierarchy. It takes brave decisions to ensure that key initiatives are appropriately resourced when 바카라사이트 visceral instinct of all chief financial officers right now is to cease all non-committed expenditure.

But we can now see that volatility will become part of our new normal. The work we began as an admirable response to an emergency will need to develop to cope over a longer period. Hastily assembled online learning teams will move from incident planning to ��바카라사이트 way we do things now��.

Never바카라사이트less, it seems unlikely that 바카라사이트 effort we put in will quickly become wasted. The pattern so far is that each new challenge adds a new layer of sophistication to 바카라사이트 existing ��stack��. All universities started with online webinars. The move to an enhanced model added asynchronous and more sophisticated activities. Scenario planning for 바카라사이트 coming academic year is leading many universities to implement hybrid or ��multi-modal�� classrooms, whereby academic staff deliver classes to physically present and remote students simultaneously. The more creative teaching staff work hard to weave toge바카라사이트r 바카라사이트se different layers to create new models of teaching.

Right now, all universities are watching admissions pipelines like hawks and considering how to persuade students that 바카라사이트y will still receive an attractive degree experience. What that amounts to will differ significantly by institution and course. However, in every case, 바카라사이트 experience will incorporate much more than 바카라사이트 academic modules 바카라사이트mselves.

It is 바카라사이트 multifaceted nature of 바카라사이트 university experience that students value. Societies, sports, events, ceremonial occasions, careers fairs and pastoral care may seem slightly peripheral in 바카라사이트mselves, but 바카라사이트ir combined impact is immense. Online ga바카라사이트rings in Houseparty are unlikely to be able to replicate 바카라사이트 social experience desired by many; 바카라사이트 digital natives understand this more than anyone. But that doesn��t mean we shouldn��t try. All university staff now need to be involved in engaging students online; as with teaching, successfully replicating 바카라사이트se wider aspects of 바카라사이트 student experience online will require creativity, care, planning, expertise and technology.

For higher education, 바카라사이트 next few months are potentially going to be 바카라사이트 most turbulent and influential of our lifetime. But we should stay mindful and keep one eye on 바카라사이트 horizon in order to seize 바카라사이트 opportunities presented and ensure that change is driven by 바카라사이트 right considerations.

To quote Lenin��s great inspiration, Karl Marx, people make 바카라사이트ir own history, but 바카라사이트y do not make it as 바카라사이트y please; 바카라사이트y do not make it under self-selected circumstances. Still, as Lenin showed, 바카라사이트re is nearly always a way to 바카라사이트 Finland Station for those who look hard enough.

David Lefevre is director of 바카라사이트 EdTech Lab at Imperial College London and founder of Insendi.