Learning Beyond Corona

“Few institutions have the longevity and deep roots of universities,” writes Jo Johnson in an April 14th. comment on the News center web pages of Kings College in London. It has been a while. In the period since March 2020 when societies and institutions of higher education around the world “closed down” with encompassing restrictions on social distance and presence, there has been a great deal of debate. Websites from universities and governments attest to it, as does for instance the publication The Chronicle of Higher Education, a US publication well worth following.

How severe is the impact of Corona? It depends on when you ask and where in the world you are looking. One thing is that the corona virus is stretching resilience and endurance to the limit, as the Kings College op-ed states it. It is a fact that countries and regions of the world are hit in very different ways, however. In the US and the UK, many universities and colleges rely on the presence of international students. The number of international students with English as a second language pursuing single semesters or degrees in the UK, US and Australia has increased a great deal in past decades.

It seemed unlikely in the spring that they would be returning to campus physically in the fall semester of 2020. It seems even more unlikely now. On the contrary, the Kings College op-ed may be correct in predicting that the Corona virus have impacted on this mobility patter long-term.

Read the article here.