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Education in Emergencies (EiE) as a subfield of Comparative and International Education (CIE) has played a vital role in advocating for the world’s most vulnerable people with a focus on short-term responses to specific events like conflict and natural disasters that often occur in the Global South. However, recent events, like the protests exposing structural racial and gender inequality, the COVID-19 pandemic, and multiple global “slow” conflicts, have revealed a different nature of modern emergencies where issues, which are often considered important but not urgent, can quickly become emergencies under the right circumstances or have in fact always been so. Accordingly, in this chapter, we reimagine a broader framework for EiE which includes long-term, systemic, and universal challenges that affect both the Global North and South. The chapter includes a historical review of EiE as a subfield within CIE along with evidence of new forms of modern emergencies in the United States, Bolivia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar, and Syria that build toward a broader framework of EiE intended for both CIE scholars and practitioners.

It is estimated that nearly 2 billion world population is now living in countries affected by extreme forms of violence, war, and criminal activities (World Bank, 2016). Apart from being affected by war and having higher poverty rates, millions are affected by climate-related disasters, pandemics which have destroyed livelihoods and lives. In 2011 and 2012 alone, more than 450 million individuals faced environmental crises (Blankespoor et al., 2010; Laframboise & Loko, 2012). Human rights advocates that every individual has the right to live with dignity and respect. International agencies are trying their best to ensure that everyone, and mainly the vulnerable communities, gets assistance in a manner that is consistent with human rights and includes the right to participation and non-discrimination. One such right is the right to education, a right which has been articulated in numerous conventions and documents and has been a part of policy maker’s debate. In emergency situations, whether man-made or a natural disaster, students face an acute crisis of accessing higher education, even when the country is limping back to normalcy. The book Higher Education in Emergencies: International Case Studies discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching and learning practice in higher education in different countries and highlights the cultural transformation of policy and practice. In addition, the authors propose future directions on how to be prepared and address the challenges of emergencies and draw implications of their findings beyond the national context.

This study aims to explain the primacy that rapid, centralised decision-making gained in higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on Australian universities.

This paper draws on discussions regarding policy problems of an international, purpose-convened on-line policy network involving over 100 registrations from multiple countries. It analyses emerging institutional policy governance texts and documents shared between network participants, applies policy science literature regarding traditional institutional policy-making routines and rapid decision-making, and references media reportage from 2020. The paper traces how higher education institutions rapidly adjusted to pandemic conditions and largely on-line operations.

The study finds that higher education institutions responded to the COVID-19 crisis by operationalising emergency management plans and introducing rapid, centralised decision-making to transition to remote modes of operation, learning and research under state-imposed emergency conditions. It highlights the need to ensure robust governance models recognising the ascendance of emergency decision-making and small-p policies in such circumstances, notwithstanding longstanding traditions of extended collegial policy-making routines for big-P (institutional) Policy. The pandemic highlighted practice and policy problems subject to rapid reform and forced institutions to clarify the relationship between emergency planning and decision-making, quality and institutional policy.

In covering a range of institutional responses, the study advances the possibility of institutions planning better for unexpected, punctuated policy shifts during an emergency through the incorporation of rapid decision-making in traditionally collegial environments. At the same time, the paper cautions against the normalisation of such processes. The study also highlights key practices and policies that require urgent reconsideration in an emergency. The study is designed as a self-contained and freestanding narrative to inform responses to future emergencies by roundly addressing the particularities of the 2020 phase of the COVID-19 pandemic as it affected higher education.

There is only limited research on policy-making in higher education institutions. This research offers an original contribution on institutional policy-making during a prolonged emergency that deeply changed higher education institution’s governance, operations and outlook. Particularly significant is the synthesis of experiences from a wide range of sector personnel, documenting punctuated policy shifts in policy governance (meta-policy), institutional policy-making routines and quality assurance actions under great pressure. This paper is substantially developed from a paper given at the Association for Tertiary Education Management Institutional Policy Seminar, 26th October 2020.

Education in an emergency refers to the accessibility of education among populations that have faced an unforeseen situation in their home country resulting in disruption of their normal lives, including the deterioration of the educational system prevalent in that country. Emergency typically arises from armed conflict or natural disasters. The world has been disrupted by more than 50 armed conflicts since the World War. In recent times, the entire world came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which in severely disrupted the prevalent education system. Emergency also affects the economic system of a country, and higher educational institution (HEI) struggles due to lack of funds. Lack of funds and other educational resources, as well as lack of physical security or environmental disasters, lead to a sudden halt in the educational system, throwing students into limbo. The book volume discusses how curriculum needs to be adaptive and collaborate with stakeholders to formulate a teaching learning method that is cognizant of the latest technologies and scientific discoveries. Several interventions have been successfully implemented across the globe and have been discussed in chapters contributed by well-known academics working in the arena of imparting education that is resilient and can deliver quality education in times of crisis.

Emergency remote teaching is not the same as a systematic, carefully thought out, and designed online learning system. Emergency remote teaching is best perceived as merely a first step towards migrating into a fully fledged, and carefully designed, virtual or online mode of study. Notwithstanding, this chapter provides a theoretical explanation that justifies the relevance and importance of emergency remote teaching in higher education practice, in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic and related discontinuities. It asserts that emergency related teaching is justified by the urgent need to maintain continuity of teaching and learning and to avoid knowledge and skills decay. A systematic approach to evaluate the effectiveness of emergency remote teaching involves measuring variables across four dimensions; that is, context, input, process, and outcomes. Weighting these dimensions is necessary to ensure that context, input, and process are prioritised above outcomes because the essence of the teaching model, when implemented, is to get it in place swiftly in order for teaching and learning to continue. The effectiveness of emergency remote teaching is best assessed on the basis of its speedy set-up and implementation to maintain continuity of teaching, not on student outcomes. The chapter investigated the approach that a sample of colleges and universities have followed to evaluate their model of emergency remote teaching and contrast it with theory. The approach found in practice was not aligned to best practice. Based on the evidence, the chapter proposes an evaluation framework that institutions can adopt specifically for evaluating emergency remote teaching practice.

This study aims to debate and highlight the challenges faced by university students regarding e-learning during the global pandemic emergency. Furthermore, it sketches the solutions of e-learning using a theoretical lens of emergency management theory (EMT). Finally, the study argues a case for improvement in existing e-learning systems to enable higher education systems, particularly in a developing country, to recover the losses and increase education quality.

A qualitative research design and phenomenology research approach were applied to conduct the current study. A total of 10 in-depth online interviews were recorded from students studying in Pakistan and the UK. Verbatim transcriptions were analysed using the reflexive thematic analysis approach.

The current study results explained in detail the numerous challenges, including lack of preparedness (students and institutions), low quality of interaction, lack of motivation, lack of class activities and forceful adoption of e-learning. Alternatively, few opportunities also emerged through a set of suggestions such as a comprehensive emergency management plan, introduction of strong student counselling programmes and a strategic plan for quality of online learning content.

This study’s contribution stands out in crucial times of the global pandemic. EMT is applied to understand the different dimensions of preparedness, response, mitigation and recovery from a students’ perspective. Furthermore, considering students as important members of higher education institutions and understanding students’ opinions regarding quality assurance during the global pandemic was imperative.

This study aims to investigate the contextual challenges of emergency Web-enabled teaching from instructors’ point of view and their future preference for online education.

A total of 165 instructors from various public and private universities and university colleges in Malaysia participated in this online survey. Data were analyzed using multiple regression.

The significant challenges for future preference for online education in terms of their relative importance were supporting learners, effectiveness, disadvantages and advantages of emergency Web-enabled teaching.

This study discusses theoretical, practical and public policy implications for the future of teaching in higher education due to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The COVID-19 crisis has forced the majority of higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide to transition to distance education. All countries have faced several challenges, such as the deteriorating economy, poor ICT infrastructure, and insufficient training, in their transition to distance education, with the severity of these challenges being remarkable for developing countries. This chapter aims to investigate tertiary students’ perceptions, attitudes, experiences, and expectations of their higher education journey amid COVID-19 across four developing countries: Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh through an online questionnaire that was administered in each of these countries. This study found that many of the stances, attitudes, concerns, and challenges related to online learning experiences and the emergency status of higher education were common amongst the Lebanese, Afghani, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi participants. The participants across the four countries favored the physical classroom over online learning and identified the disadvantages of distance education that included lack of ICT skills, poor infrastructure, and insufficient training. The few differences that were identified across participants from these countries were mainly attributed to differences in contexts, including socio-economic and political contexts. These findings voice the concerns of one of the key stakeholders, tertiary students, that address the transition to distance education during emergency times and call for immediate intervention from decision and policy-makers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically transformed higher education policy and practices across the globe, including Bangladesh. Higher education institutions (HEIs) were forced to deliver teaching and learning online. This chapter discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching and learning practice in higher education in Bangladesh and highlights the cultural transformation of policy and practice. In addition, it proposes future directions on how to be prepared and addresses the challenges of emergencies and draws implications of the findings beyond the national context. In the beginning of the pandemic, most universities in Bangladesh had to initially shut down their operations without offering any alternatives. However, a number of universities gradually rolled out some online teaching and learning activities as the lockdowns kept extending. A large portion of the HEIs struggled to continue their online teaching and learning due to the lack of resources, i.e., devices, technological skills and training, lack of policy, negative mindset, poor network infrastructure, and high cost of internet. This unprecedented situation ushered in by the pandemic showed the lack of preparedness and below-par capacity to respond to emergencies for the continuation of higher education in Bangladesh. Furthermore, it highlighted that improving the higher education sector requires tremendous effort from the government, researchers, policymakers, practitioners, the universities, and other industries directly or indirectly related to the sector.

The application of blockchain, particularly through avenues in teaching and learning and academic administration, has created scope for a new business model in higher education. Although higher education institutions in many African countries including Botswana are yet to adopt blockchain in their institutional processes, the chapter points to seven unique areas of practice in which the technology could be infused. Distributed ledgers and smart contracts are among the blockchain functions that could assist in improving efficiency, security, and privacy in the way academic administration is executed especially in student identification, processing of student admission applications, degree certification, document authentication, and quality assurance. A distinct highpoint of the chapter is the attention it calls to student experience in the learning and teaching process, by highlighting that it stands to benefit from the collaborative learning model that blockchain enables. At a wider level, the conversation about blockchain-based pedagogy coalesces with the push by many African governments, in particular in Botswana, towards a digitally transformed society. Already, many colleges and universities have placed the focus on achieving ‘smart campuses’ as a strategic goal. Blockchain adoption is one such step towards a smart campus. The chapter theorises that higher education institutions cannot legitimately talk about smart campuses while still holding steadfast to manual systems and processes.