Beyond the Pandemic in Higher Education

Abstract

This research explores how people in higher education are experiencing long-term recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. It seeks to hear from members of college and university communities now that we are over five years past the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, including current undergraduate students, graduate students, staff members, faculty members, and members of administrations so that we can better understand their perceptions of and experiences with the pandemic and recovery from it. Specifically, this will help us understand (1) long-term recovery from disasters; (2) how long-term recovery from disasters overlaps and co-occurs with other processes like potential other disasters and large-scale cultural issues like changing perceptions of higher education; and (3) how different groups are affected by these processes and how these experiences and perceptions vary by group or if people are members of multiple groups. Overall, this work seeks to help shape: theory about long-term disaster recovery and co-occurring events in recovery; gaps in the literature about differential impacts on different groups in disasters in higher education specifically and on long-term COVID-19 pandemic recovery; and how broader cultural changes about key cultural, social, political, and economic issues under debate (like the perceptions and experiences of higher education) shape recovery processes.