Exist or Exit: Resilience During and Post COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis in Higher Tertiary Institutions

Exist or Exit: Resilience During and Post COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis in Higher Tertiary Institutions

Mubango Hazel, Hlanganipai Ngirande, Khathutshelo Khashane
Copyright: © 2024 |Pages: 20
DOI: 10.4018/979-8-3693-1926-0.ch007
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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the entire world causing every aspect of the higher education ecosystem to undergo a tipping point. The total mandatory lockdown resulted in all academic activities from learning to administrative activities coming to a standstill as institutions did not know how to go around it. Employees' job security, indefinite suspension of lectures, disruption of the university calendar, employee work-life balance, and business continuity were all operational challenges faced by universities during the pandemic. This chapter aims to establish the resilience strategies implemented by higher education institutions in South Africa and Zimbabwe as they strived to continue delivering services to stakeholders during and after the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Digital transformation as a primary resilience strategy enabled HEIs to implement online learning and work from home for academic and non-academic staff for university business continuity.
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Higher Education Before The Pandemic

Education systems before the pandemic were traditional from the administrative processes to lectures. Lectures were done face to face where every student was expected to attend physically and hand in assignments as hard printed copies. The student had the priviledge of having physical interactions with the lecturer during and even after the lesson. On the administrative side, the application process of student enrolment was done physically with potential students visiting the university campuses to make the application. Payment of school fees, writing of exams, and even exam processing were mostly done in the physical space. The face-to-face lectures ensured that all students benefited from learning.

Key Terms in this Chapter

Online Learning: Using ICT tools to teach students content and skills and to support their learning both within and outside of the conventional classroom environment.

Strategies: High-level plans to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty.

Digital Transformation: The process of changing from a traditional business model to a digital one by applying digital technologies to change the operating method, leadership, working process, and company culture to significantly enhance organisation performance.

Higher Education Institution: An institution of post-secondary school learning like a university that is active in teaching and research through the conduct of regular classes or distance education systems leading to the award of a degree or diploma.

Digitalisation: The use of digital technologies to change a business model to achieve efficiency and provide value-producing opportunities.

Resilience: The capacity of an organisation to withstand and adaptable or to recover quickly from difficulties caused by environmental factors.

Work From Home: A concept where the employee can do his or her job from home using ICT technologies.

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