Dr Seçkin Sertdemir Özdemir
Collegium Researcher at the Turku Institute
for Advanced Studies and the Department of Philosophy,
Contemporary History and Political Science
and Visiting Fellow in the European Institute at the LSE
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a dramatic impact on every aspect of life. As the crisis has evolved, governments worldwide have taken multiple drastic measures to prevent the spread of the virus. However, regulations imposed at the national level have intensified already existing socio-political inequalities and have increased poverty and vulnerability.
One of the institutions most affected by the pandemic is higher education; specifically, academic freedom and institutional autonomy are at great risk across the world.
Universities have shifted to online or blended teaching and learning, and to virtual events. The remote learning environment has allowed students the flexibility of attending asynchronous classes, has reduced costs, and has promoted transnational participation in courses and events. However, the advantages of the current shift to online education are outweighed by the disadvantages. To better understand the universities’ ongoing transformation, it is crucial to examine the main challenges that higher education institutions face today and the global impact of the pandemic on academia. Financially powerful universities in wealthier countries have made a smooth transition to online education; on the other hand, in low- and middle-income countries, many scholars lack resources, tools and additional equipment for digital education. For example, 77 per cent of universities in Africa have had to put their activities on hold during the pandemic. Bert van der Zwaan, author of Higher Education in 2040: A Global Approach (2017), emphasizes that as a result of the economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis, some universities might be closed as this is exactly what happened after major outbreaks and epidemics that brought about massive social changes, such as the Black Death.
Recent research by James Walker, Marina Della Giusta and Rita Fontinha at the University of Reading, UK, (December 2020) outlines three main challenges that academics face today because of the pandemic. First, there has been a ‘covidization’ of research in the form of fewer funding opportunities for studies that have not focused on pandemic-related topics. Second, the move to online learning has increased the time spent on teaching and assessment, with an increase in numbers of students despite the pandemic. In contrast, it has reduced the amount of time that academics dedicate to their research. The transition to online learning has also deepened gender inequality as female scholars are now devoting 50 per cent more time to childcare. Results from the preliminary findings of another study related to the pandemic’s impact on academic productivity demonstrate that the productivity of male scholars is steadily increasing at a faster rate than that of their female counterparts. Third, quantitative research has been reinforced at the expense of interdisciplinary studies because it is difficult to carry out ethnographic and archival research during the pandemic.
Another report by the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC) published in April 2020 stresses further risks for non-teaching staff: they have become most vulnerable members of the academic community during the pandemic because of notable job loss. In addition, student mobility to travel abroad for research activities has been at risk as opportunities for international research and short-term study periods have been largely suspended.
Moreover, a recent report, Free to Think, Report of Scholars at Risk (November 2020), offers another major problem faced by higher education institutions: the rise of monitoring and censorship.
Academic freedom and institutional autonomy for higher education institutions has always been at risk, especially under authoritarian regimes. But today, repressive governments are using the pandemic as an excuse to suppress and silence dissident students and scholars. For instance, since January 2021, Turkish academics and students have been protesting against the top-down appointment of Melih Bulu as rector at Istanbul’s Boğaziçi University by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; the Governor of Istanbul has used the spread of the virus as a pretext to ban all public demonstrations and meetings to block further protests. In India, students and activists protesting against the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) say that the government deliberately uses the coronavirus crisis to silence them.
However, the rise of control and monitoring over universities is not unique to repressive regimes. The Free to Think report highlights the fact that the online learning environment has also carried risks of monitoring and recording of Zoom lectures, and some scholars have expressed a fear of surveillance during their virtual seminars and events by state or non-state monitors. For instance, Charlie Kirk, the head of the United States right-wing group Turning Point, called upon students to record their university teachers’ Zoom lectures and expose them on social media. The report also refers to a rise in ‘Zoombombing’ in the form of hijacking and offensive attacks on online meetings by the insertion of racist, homophobic and pornographic materials. There are also concerns about the commercial use of university faculty members’ online teaching materials without their consent.
The Free to Think report emphasises how governments have targeted academics’ public statements related to the coronavirus crisis. The most dramatic and best-known example is the tragic case of Chinese ophthalmologist Li Wenliang. He was questioned by police and accused of ‘making false comments’ after he warned about the new deadly SARS virus through his social media account. He caught the virus and died on 6 February 2020 at 34 years old. The Chinese government has also targeted other scholars who have criticised the country’s strategy to tackle and suppress the virus and has put in place further control measures to crack down on the publication of scientific articles related to Covid-19 in China. Another example is from the US: Rebekah Jones, a data scientist at the Department of Health in Florida, was fired because she refused to manipulate the official data about the coronavirus. The report refers to many other examples around the world: students, scholars and activities have been arrested, investigated or suspended from their positions in other countries, such as Egypt, Bangladesh, Uganda and Turkey.
As the Covid-19 crisis deepens, the measures and regulations in place have increased inequality with regard to local and regional conditions, they have put many jobs at risk, and they have profoundly threatened academic freedom and institutional autonomy. Besides, some autocratic governments have used the health crisis as a pretext to increase their control over higher education institutions and knowledge production. There is an urgent need to address on a global level the significant problems that we face today, such as deplorable working conditions, job cuts, rising control and surveillance at universities. When it comes to the pandemic, we are not all in the same boat; however, we can be united when it comes to promoting academic freedom and institutional autonomy and increasing transnational solidarity in the academic community.
