Educational Review: Call for Papers

World in Motion: Early Reflections on the impact of COVID-19 on Global Higher Education.

This timely proposal for a special issue of Educational Review, with guest editor Dr Jason Arday (Durham University, Higher Education and Social Inequality) emanates from the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and its almost certainly transformative impact on higher education systems throughout the world.

Key information

Guest editor email: Jason.a.arday@durham.ac.uk
Journal manager email: G.M.Banks@bham.ac.uk
Deadline for abstract submission: 30 November 2020
Deadline for completed manuscript submission: 1 May 2021

 

The Impact of COVID-19 on the higher education landscape

In many countries, the higher education landscape has already begun to change dramatically due to the spread of the coronavirus and the containment and mitigation strategies adopted by national governments and higher education providers. Travel restrictions, social distancing measures, isolation and quarantine procedures, campus closures and border closures have radically altered the nature of academic study and academic work for students and faculty around the globe, in ways that are expected to persist for some time. The financial operating models of many providers and the financial viability of some will be severely tested by the economic repercussions of the pandemic, which may mean a substantial contraction of public and private spending on higher education in the years ahead.

The consequences of post-pandemic changes to the nature of academic study and students’ experiences of higher education are beginning to be felt by new and returning cohorts, and by higher education faculty who must adapt their professional and academic labour in line with institutional responses to the crisis—including adaptations that have or threaten to heighten pre-existing exclusionary institutional practices. Governments globally remain under intense pressure to mitigate such consequences, balancing commitment to equitable access to HE against considerations of the future of public/private funding for national HE sectors. The current HE landscape therefore reflects the immediate, complex negotiations of power and priorities for individuals, institutions, National governments and international networks in the face of an unprecedented global pandemic.

Scope of Special Issue

Against this backdrop, this special issue considers the immediate short-term effects of the pandemic on higher education systems from around the globe with an intersectional focus on its impact on race, class, gender and other social inequalities among students and faculty, in addition to examining the fiscal and political impact on higher education institutions, national higher education systems, and global higher education networks.Promoting theoretically-rich works and new empirical contributions to knowledge, this special issue seeks papers which will advance critical analysis of the structural changes and social disparities resulting from the pandemic within the context of higher education. We welcome contributions which focus on qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods research, although there may also be some scope to accommodate papers which constitute wholly theoretically-focused contributions in conjunction with existing empirical data.

Empirical and conceptual papers with a focus on the impact of COVID-19 in higher education globally will be welcome on areas such as, but not limited to:

  • Intersectional implications of the pandemic on higher education
  • Impact on teaching and learning
  • Pedagogical implications; online engagement and delivery
  • Negotiating the curriculum
  • Impact on student populations
  • Impact on transitions to University
  • Impact on professional and academic labour
  • Impact on University Leadership
  • Economic and political implications for the HE sector
  • Historical, geographical, sociological, psychological or philosophical perspectives
  • Reflections on HE past, present and future in the context of the pandemic

Process

Abstracts of up to 500 words should be submitted via email to the journal manager no later than 30 November 2020. Selected contributors will be notified by 31 December 2020. Articles of 6000-8000 words will be due by 01 May 2021 and will undergo full peer review as per the journal policy.The guest editor will be happy to receive and respond to queries relating to the special issue.