Abstract:

After more than six months of the COVID-19 pandemic some of its effects to higher education have been already documented. Some of those effects were foreseen [1]. The substitution of face-to-face classes by online classes is increasing the inequality in the world. The higher education institutions around the world rushed to teach online, most of them without any preparation and in some cases in public universities their authorities imposing the technology to be used, the school calendar and new labor relations. Most of the negative effects of COVID-19 have been suffered by the poorest students in the world who have not been able to access to their online courses because they either have to work, have no computers, lack good quality internet service or because of unsuitable conditions at home. At the Mexican Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) more than a third of the students considers that learning online has been minimum or null [2]. Also, two findings of a survey by professors at UAM are that 76.1% of the professors use their own equipment to teach online and 74.6% work more hours than the established in their contracts with the university [2]. At the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), 20% of its students did not take classes online and 10% of their professors did not teach online [3]. A lot of higher education students will be loaded with debt because they or their parents have lost their jobs and are consuming their savings. Schools after returning to some face-to-face classes will need to expend more on water, masks, gel, computer antivirus and maybe in the administration of testing for COVID-19. For example, at the Azcapotzalco campus of the UAM there was no water in half the restrooms before the pandemic. Also, classrooms in public schools lack good ventilation which is necessary in case of airborne virus transmission. Schools must also design both face-to-face and online courses which will greatly depend on the resources they have. Schools must rethink the technology they are using in order to protect their intellectual rights and personal records of professors and students. In this paper some of the documented negative effects of COVID-19 to higher education are referred and discussed, among them, the effects on the salary inequality of faculty which was already high before the coronavirus pandemic [4]. Some recommendations are offered to higher education institutions in their return to “normal” activities.

References:
[1] D.N. Dominguez-Perez, N. Dominguez-Vergara, From the lessons of coronavirus, a whole new world in education?, EDULEARN 2020 Proceedings, pp. 6412-6421, 2020.
[2] UAM, Sesión de Colegio Académico 479, 10 July, 2020. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khIIcGRARok
[3] Instituto Politécnico Nacional, VII Sesión Ordinaria del XXXVIII Consejo General Consultivo del IPN, 13 July, 2020. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEGQEe8Fijc
[4] N. Dominguez-Vergara, R. S. Ruiz Salvatierra, R. M. Dominguez-Perez, The 2019 strike and its impact in the future of the UAM, EDULEARN 2019 Proceedings, pp. 7327-7336, 2019.

Keywords:

COVID-19, online education, inequality.