The Evolution of Higher Education

Upwards of twenty million Americans are currently enrolled in higher education, and COVID-19 has impacted every single of one of them. But it’s not just the students that have had to withstand this change. In addition to the millions of students, there are millions more that are employed by these institutions. The transition has not been easy on anyone. In a matter of mere days, colleges across the country completely redesigned the way they operate. While the world has experienced pandemics and similar catastrophes in the past, none of them have influenced education like COVID-19 has. This can be largely attributed to the fact that education has undergone significant technological advancements in recent years, giving us the capabilities to facilitate online learning and allowing us to stay connected even when we are apart. But is it enough to maintain the integrity of higher education?

While we have proven that it is possible to continue education online, I think we have simultaneously proven that it is detrimental to our institutions in many ways. In a lecture titled “Higher Education and COVID-19,” Dr. Frim Ampaw, associate professor of educational leadership at Central Michigan University, explained the state of higher education prior to COVID-19, pointing out that colleges were already experiencing declining enrollments, declining state appropriations, and tuition becoming increasingly unaffordable for students. She goes on to evaluate how these already-existing problems, combined with the emergence of a pandemic, are creating even larger dilemmas. State and federal governments are pouring their money and resources into public health and are struggling to stimulate the economy, leaving education near the bottom of the priority list and stripping institutions of their funding. 

Moreover, with over thirty million people applying for unemployment benefits since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional college-aged students may not be financially able to pursue a post-secondary education, especially at public universities or private colleges. Based on personal experiences and the uncertainty of what will happen in the upcoming academic year, it seems that many students may opt to enroll in community college. If colleges are forced to continue with an online format, then the differences between community colleges and four-year institutions will become miniscule. Many universities are offering refunds to students in an attempt to make up for lost opportunities.

The focus of this shift in education has predominantly been the students, but there are many more individuals who seem to have been forgotten. While some faculty have been lucky enough to maintain their jobs, there are a myriad of people employed by higher education that are unable to continue working with the closure of campuses, including janitorial and maintenance staff, dining hall employees, and public safety personnel. As long as institutions remain online, all of these people who are reliant on students being present on campus will remain unemployed. 

In addition to the financial concerns, the rapid evolution of higher education has created challenges in transitioning certain courses to an online format. Countless courses in the sciences consist of lab portions, which are crucial components of the learning process. As someone who is enrolled primarily in science classes, I can attest to the fact that this transition has been less than ideal. We have discovered that it is excruciatingly difficult to reproduce lab classes in an online format. Virtual labs have been implemented in an attempt to mirror what students would experience in the classroom, but this minimal exposure lacks the hands-on aspect is not sufficient. This inability to recreate a students in-person experiences holds true not only for science courses, but for a variety of fields of study. Those studying the arts, such as music or theater, surely cannot receive the same level of instruction in online classes as they would in-person.

Overall, the resilience of higher education institutions has been continually tested in the recent months. The aforementioned observations are not intended to blame anyone; rather I think they exemplify the importance of face-to-face education and show that the change to online education can only be a temporary solution. Educators and students alike have come together like never before in an effort to reinvent college and have been surprisingly successful considering the circumstances. As a college student, I am incredibly proud of the actions taken by my university to combat COVID-19, but I cannot wait until we are able to make the transition back to in-person instruction.