The pandemic provides lessons for how universities can help during disasters to come

Lucy Mercer-Mapstone (Uni Sydney) and colleagues examined how ten Australian universities, plus one in the US and one in the UK, supported students during the pandemic. They report their findings in a new paper from the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education.

They found the move to on-line learning helped face-to-face students from “minoritised” backgrounds, by allowing, “a level of flexibility which made learning more accessible . This accessibility and flexibility prompted ripple benefits which enhanced students’ wellbeing and financial situations.”

But only if they had the resources and support to make the switch.

“Students’ responses overwhelmingly described a deepening inequity divide that applied across most categories. For students from minoritised backgrounds, they experienced a deepening of the equity divide and additional challenges accessing the technology required to access learning, loss of income, and the challenges such as caring responsibilities that further inhibited their study and contributed to declining mental health.”

For the present pandemic and the next crisis (and the authors argue climate change means there will be) universities face two challenges. First,  to “maintain provisions and accommodations” to support students. Second, “to realign our policies, services, and support for educators to create a more agile, responsive, and inclusive education experience for our students with particular attention to students from minoritised backgrounds as we aspire for educational equity.”