Could the Corona pandemic lead to technical disruption in postgraduate studies? Quarantine around the world to fight the Corona virus has forced universities to suddenly switch to distance learning. But although this rapid turnaround was tough for college students, it might have some benefit.
Like many other businesses, universities struggle to reopen their businesses and adopt many strategies. For example, the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom announced that its lectures will be available online at least until the summer of 2021. As for other universities, such as the American University of Stanford, it will provide a mixture of online teaching, in addition to teaching students in the classroom, and distribute students to their academic study programs so that a small number of students congregate in the university halls at any time.
A hit for education
And do not forget that the Corona pandemic represents a severe economic blow to higher education, as the residential rooms are empty, and students have stopped paying the full tuition fees. In some cases, the situation was painful, as many small institutes that were not supported had to stop work and close their doors. Even the major international universities face great challenges, and the University of Michigan expects that the Corona pandemic will cause a loss of about one billion dollars by the end of 2020, while Harvard University expects to suffer a deficit of 75 million dollars next year.
But could this pandemic ultimately help improve education for many people at low costs? It depends on whether universities abandon technology by the end of the pandemic, or alternatively they are looking for the best way to harness these technologies. This is not an easy challenge, given the importance of interactions between professors and university students, and what happens inside and outside the lesson.
When I was a college student 40 years ago, I was convinced that learning via video technology as it is today would chart a new form of education. In the end, I started thinking why students around the world cannot access the best lectures and materials, especially since the lectures on the campus of about 200 students offer a very limited range of interactions between students?
The role of teachers
Of course, the professors still play an important role in the lectures. They supervise the material and answer students' questions. And I cannot imagine the recorded lectures replacing the learning in small halls. But while a person feels energetic when attending the lecture himself, a good and well-recorded lecture may be better than a bad lecture you attend yourself.
And after four quick decades have not achieved much development, perhaps due to the university administration, as few of them want to take a path that leads to abandoning their services. University professors fear that recorded lectures will make it difficult for graduate students to find work, as they are - given the energy they have - the main driver of research.
Population shifts have always affected the number of students enrolled in universities. Even if some fields, such as computer science, are still in demand, many other fields, due to the low enrollment of students in them, have become more resistant to new technologies that aim to reduce employment.
Kenneth Rogoff is Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Harvard University
The biggest drawback
The high costs of producing good-lecture lectures that satisfy students remain the greatest barrier to learning via video technology, as is the case in lectures that the student attends himself. Because copying recorded lectures is a very easy matter, it will be difficult to impose high prices on these lectures to cover their costs. Some educational institutions are working to solve these problems, but so far there has not been a major breakthrough in this system.
Accordingly, it is reasonable to ask the question whether the United States government should bear the costs of online lecture recording materials in specific areas, especially in areas such as mathematics, computer science, physics, and accounting, which must be a strong candidate for funding from The federal government.
There are many other academic fields, including economics, that have great potential online. And supports the Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, to make higher education free in his country, which helps some university professors. But instead of expanding the existing university study system, wouldn't funding online education be better and more effective, especially since it can help adults of all ages?
University study gives students a range of important life skills and in-depth understanding, helps them lead a richer and more inclusive life, and makes them better citizens of their country. But it is not entirely clear whether the various features of higher education, including skill acquisition, social and intellectual development, need to be grouped together as they are now. Students need to come together, but not always necessarily.
In theory, everyone agrees that expanding access to higher education is one of the best ways to reduce inequality, and it helps make society more just and more productive. It is necessary in a world where technology and globalization (and if it is now becoming globalization) require adaptation and perhaps greater training to fill the need for labor market demand. The Corona crisis may contribute to a change in the economic floor below us. But we do not want to look at these changes in terror if the pandemic leads to a change towards better and more comprehensive university education.
"Corona" represents an economic blow to higher education, as the apartment rooms are empty, and students have stopped paying the entire tuition fee.