Читать книгу The New Normal in IT - Gregory S. Smith - Страница 14

In academia, K–12 and higher education included, both had significant impacts as a result of Covid-19 during the 2020 academic year. According to the University of Southern California Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR), “only about two-thirds of households with income less than $25,000/year had computers and Internet access for children's remote learning, compared to 91 percent of families with household incomes of $75,000–$149,000.”¹⁸ In addition, “students receiving critical services, like free or reduced-priced meals” and other education services dropped dramatically once schools started closing their doors by April 2020.¹⁹ By October 2020, approximately 68 percent of K–12 children in the United States were either learning fully or partially remote.²⁰ In addition, nearly 40 percent of parents indicated that their children needed tutoring and indicated that their schools were not providing those services.²¹ Parents were also polled with regard to the overall quality of their children's education during 2020. Parents of remote learners graded it as “less engaging, and of lower quality across all content areas.”²² Parents of in-classroom learning or hybrid in-class/remote learning indicated no change or a small decrease of concerns compared to fully remote learning.²³ Unions representing K–12 teachers across the country fought to have teachers return to in-classroom instruction. Parents looking for alternatives sought private-school education where they offered in-person learning.

According to the New York Times, “online schools are here to stay, even after the pandemic.”²⁴ Bloomington, Minnesota, Public Schools “has decided to keep running online school even after the pandemic” due to preferences by families.²⁵ Other school districts in some states are doing the opposite. In March of 2021, Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey indicated that there should be “no remote learning option for children in New Jersey” in the fall semester.²⁶ New York State's Department of Education recently announced that it's canceling snow days.²⁷ Some parents are simply not happy. “This is preposterous. These people are joyless bureaucrats. And you can quote me on that!”²⁸ said one New York parent of four.

Higher education was also greatly impacted during the 2020 academic year, both financially and with in-person learning. Georgetown University, where I teach in a graduate technology management program, went virtual for most of 2020 and through May of 2021. The transition to online learning tools like Canvas and Zoom had mixed results of a transition. Those professors who had previously taught in either all online or hybrid-online courses were better prepared than those who had traditionally taught in-person courses for the majority of their careers. Courses needed to be migrated from in-person to online formats, specifically on Canvas. An aggressive training program was conducted to assist faculty with the transition to online learning.

Colleges and universities around the world had big impacts to their operations and revenue in 2020 and into the first half of 2021. In many instances, parents reevaluated whether their children would attend university programs for cost and safety purposes. Universities across the globe lost millions in revenue from a variety of sources including:

 Tuition from international students

 Room and board fees

 Parking fees

 Food and catering fees

Many universities compensated parents by offering them a reduced tuition fee for remote-learning options. According to the Understanding America Survey, a U.S. nationally represented study of American parents on the impacts of Covid-19, the following core conclusions were identified:

 The overall impact on parents planning to send their children to university in the fall of 2020 fell by 2 percent.

 Another 3 percent of parents indicated that they had changed where their children would go to university in the fall as a result of Covid-19.

 The impacts to two-year community school and graduate programs had the largest impact with 20 percent of two-year programs and 8 percent of graduate programs' students indicated they would take fewer classes.

 There were sizable gaps in impact by race, class, and institution type. White respondents (3 percent) and upper-middle-income respondents making between $75,000 and $149,000 per year (5 percent) stated plans to take fewer classes compared to Asian (29 percent), Hispanic (24 percent), and low-income households making less than $25,000 annually (18 percent).

 Hispanic (27 percent) and low-income respondents (27 percent) were much more likely to say that Covid-19 affected a household member's reenrollment decisions, most commonly impacted by financial difficulties.²⁹

Clemson University in South Carolina recently announced that it was freezing undergraduate tuition for the 2021–2022 academic year.³⁰ The board of trustees “cited the financial and emotional stress of the coronavirus pandemic on many students and the families” as the primary reason for not increasing tuition.³¹ I believe many universities will follow suit because the impact to students and parents throughout the pandemic has been significant. I personally know many families who are pulling their kids out of high-cost universities and sending them to local community colleges for the first two years of their higher education experience as a result of complications (financial and housing) related to global pandemic. The cost savings is massive and the students don't need housing or food plans, saving parents considerable money. Once they complete two years, they plan to re-engage with their four-year school of choice. I also believe universities will start adjusting their tuition pricing for hybrid-online and all-online programs. I'm confident that smaller admission pools will drive universities to offer more affordable solutions for students that are accepted to hybrid or fully remote programs.

I asked some colleagues at several colleges and universities around the globe a few questions regarding the impacts of the global pandemic on their universities. Their answers are listed below.

Higher Education Question: What revenue impacts occurred in your university during the height of the pandemic in 2020?