After two years of Covid, what assessment for universities around the world?

“The big change observed during the pandemic is clearly the generalized closure of campuses at the international level and a transition to distance education, with great heterogeneity in the responses provided and the levels of preparation,” said explained to AFP Mathias Bouckaert, analyst at the OECD and specialist in university issues. "In some countries, online teaching was already practiced, such as in Canada where harsh winters sometimes make travel impossible. In other countries such as Turkey, where laws imposed a high level of face-to-face teaching, these practices were far less familiar," he continues.

Covid-19, which led to the closure of universities in March 2020 in most countries, with recourse to distance education and then often to hybrid forms (face-to-face and remote), had "an impact varied by region and income level", with countries in Europe and North America "better able to cope with disruption", also underlines a Unesco report published in early 2021. This is the case in the United States, where the enrollment of students in distance learning programs had already increased by 29% between 2012 and 2018. According to national statistics, 16% of students there studied exclusively online at the end of 2018. In this country, where most universities closed from March 2020 to August 2021, the pandemic has however affected the number of students - 17 million enrolled this year, one million less than in 2019 -, and especially that of international students , whose enrollment fell by 17% between 2019 and 2021, according to the National Student Clearinghouse research center.

"Where are the facilities?"

"Generally speaking, universities that had international students have been greatly impacted by digitalisation", summarizes Mathias Bouckaert, citing for example the United Kingdom, the United States or Australia.

In Canada, where foreign students can represent up to 30% of the total, restrictions linked to the pandemic have also complicated access to universities. In this country, with the appearance of Omicron since January in Quebec and Ontario, all the universities - which for the most part offered hybrid teaching - again had to close completely for a few weeks. But online teaching seems to have worked quite well there. According to a 2021 study by the Canadian Student Research Consortium of 13,000 students, “about two-thirds said they were satisfied with the instruction they received online.” This is much less the case in other regions of the world, such as Africa.

In Kenya, access to the internet or computers remains a major problem. "We are very poorly equipped," said Masibo Lumala, lecturer at Moi University (west). "We have the skills to teach online, most of us having taken training, but where are the facilities?". Phylis Maina, dental student at the University of Nairobi, also regrets the poor quality of internet connections. She also regrets that "social interactions between teachers and students (...) have disappeared".

"Exacerbated inequalities"

Because the pandemic has not only disrupted learning for young people: it has also deprived them of student life, with significant psychological repercussions for some, and an increase in inequalities.

"My parents only said that college was years when we met for life, I don't feel that," summarizes Emil Kunz, 22, an agronomy student at AFP. Berlin. In Germany, where most universities are still largely remote, for young people who have stayed with their parents, "school is over, but adult life cannot begin", explains Klaus Hurrelmann, education researcher at the Hertie School in Berlin, for whom "the pandemic will probably shape this cohort of students for life". "In general, there was an impact on mental health. The isolation and the confinements were complicated", underlines Mathias Bouckaert. The pandemic has also “exacerbated the inequalities already in place”, he adds, “the least advantaged students having found themselves in even more difficulty”, in particular those with dependent children or without a computer.

In France, students, who returned to college in September, have also been hard hit. "There was a strong demand to return to face-to-face," says Raphaëlle Laignoux, vice-president in charge of student life at Paris I Sorbonne University. In this university, where food aid or connection aid for students was set up in 2020, in the form of computer loans in particular, "most of our students are now equipped", she continues. "It's more about social conditions - where are we, how do we eat - that inequalities persist".