Abstract:

The outbreak and spread of COVID-19 have directly impacted public health systems and government finances, causing great losses to the economy. The effect of COVID-19 has been such that it is leading many corporations from various sectors to bankruptcy. Faced with this framework, universities must respond, adapt and make decisions to maintain them and overcome the crisis stage, that is, to become a resilient institution.

Focusing on digitalization, recently it has become a fundamental and strategic activity for the performance of higher education institutions where universities have been forced to immerse themselves in innovative initiatives that allow them to promote their growth. In this way, the pandemic has led companies, and particularly higher education institutions, to reinvent themselves through digital transformation.

Currently, universities have great opportunities at hand through digitalization. Recently, COVID-19 restrictions, regulations, and the capacity to release staff time for mandatory training were drivers for this project. In this regard, digitalization in higher education institutions is still a controversial issue within the academic community and poses some unique challenges for educational leaders and managers. The distinctive nature of higher education institutions results in a complex influence on the digital transformation in education. But evidence has shown that a crisis can act as either a catalyst of or an inhibitor to innovation in higher education institutions, and therefore the crisis context and resulting strategic responses create important and interesting questions for educational scholars. Even though its importance, there are few studies that focus on the effect of COVID-19 in higher education institutions.

This study contributes to the growing literature on how higher education institutions innovate in times of the unique crisis produced by COVID-19 analysing:
1) the leader and manager profile in higher education institutions,
2) the type, private or public character of the institutions, and
3) the pandemic impact. We shed light on the confusing and puzzle findings in the literature regarding the profile and personal status of leaders and managers in higher education institutions, together with evidence on the unequal impact on digitalization at universities.

The authors conducted an exploratory research through interview method to 81 leaders and managers focusing on Latin American institutions from September 1 to October 30 at 2020 matching procedures to test the hypotheses. With the aim to measure the digital transformation in higher education in times of crisis in Latin America, the data collection was divided into two separate consultations:
(1) leaders in higher education institutions, and
(2) representatives across the institution (that is, comprehensive consultation) because they could facilitate information from as many different sectors as possible within institutions involved in activities related to digital transformation.

For this, after reviewing the literature, we will present our theoretical framework and analysis of the hypotheses being tested in our study. We describe the variables used in our analysis in the data and variables section. Next, we present the empirical method used and the results. Finally, in the Discussion section we discuss the main findings and their implications. Also, in the Conclusion section, we summary the main ideas of our paper.

Keywords:

Higher education, crisis, minorities, virtual university, diversity issues.