How universities will adapt to the post-COVID world
Lesson summary
Hi everyone, thanks for joining us for another Plain English lesson. Today is number 269. I’m Jeff; JR is the producer; and you can find the full lesson at PlainEnglish.com/269. Check that out if you haven’t seen the new site—it’s looking good. PlainEnglish.com/269.
Universities planning for a quieter campus
At this point, it’s safe to say that every aspect of life and the economy has been affected by the coronavirus. Layoffs and furloughs have soared, unemployment has risen to levels we haven’t seen since the Great Depression. Big businesses are slimming down. Small businesses have shuttered. But educational institutions, often an overlooked part of the economy, are going to take a hard hit.
Think about it: a university’s business plan is to bring together thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of people from around the world to learn in close proximity to each other. Students attend class in multiple different rooms and buildings each day, and with a different group of people almost every hour. Some universities host classes with hundreds of students at a time, all packed like sardines into one lecture hall. Instead of six feet apart, students are barely six inches from each other.
Not to mention, college students usually live in close quarters, too. Dorms and apartment buildings on campuses cram hundreds of students into one building, and often have communal spaces like bathrooms, laundry rooms, lounges, and dining halls. What was once an essential ingredient in learning and development is now a major liability as universities plan for a post-COVID world.
At the peak of the pandemic, universities turned to virtual learning. Is that such a bad thing, long-term? If that becomes a longer-term model, universities will find themselves with empty—and expensive—facilities for housing, catering, and sports.
But virtual learning is a hard sell. There’s a reason why the in-person format has been successful for hundreds of years. The virtual learning experience is completely different, and it’s clear that it is not as attractive: students are just not learning as much in the (virtual) classroom, and they’re not getting the essential out-of-classroom benefits either. Some students have been demanding rebates or refunds, frustrated that the value of their tuition is now lower, with lower-quality online lessons, no access to campus facilities, and no access to the housing they paid to rent. Going virtual also changes or eliminates many other things that are so important to the college experience: like student clubs, sports, and—let’s face it—parties.
Even if universities can open their facilities, it will be a long time before they will welcome students from abroad due to restrictions on international travel. This is a problem. Many Western, English-speaking universities, especially those in the US, the UK, and Australia, rely on foreign students for a big chunk of income. Universities charge foreign students much higher tuition. In the UK, for instance, undergraduate international students are charged fees as high as six times more than domestic students. The effect is that foreign student subsidize the domestic students. In other words, domestic students can pay less because foreign students are paying more per person.
Foreign students aren’t going to pay that kind of premium for an online college experience, and the effects could be felt by Western universities for years to come. It’s not just a one-semester problem. If this fall’s incoming students don’t start their degrees abroad, they will probably finish their degrees wherever they start them, resulting in a multi-year loss for every student that chooses not to come here this year.
Many of the foreign students in the UK, Australia, and the US have come from China. Global tensions between China and the West could cause future Chinese students to consider staying home rather than studying abroad. They could also consider countries, such as Canada, that have traditionally been more welcoming to foreigners.
Most universities are taking steps to weather the storm. They are scrambling to advance their online and remote teaching platforms so that they will be able to keep at least some revenue coming in. Many schools are in somewhat of a holding pattern though, and are waiting for guidance on what’s permitted and what will be safe in the fall. A few schools have already announced an online-only format through 2021, while others have plans in the works for a socially-distanced campus.
Remember the coronavirus writing challenge
I’m thinking back to my college experience and I’m wondering how schools can make a socially-distanced campus. In my first year, we lived two to a room and the room was just big enough for two beds, two desks—we had our desks underneath the beds—a closet each and little extra space for a mini-fridge and boxes of stuff. And we were on a long hall, with shared bathrooms—one for men, one for women. We ate in a huge cafeteria—served ourselves, buffet-style. I went to a small college and we were on top of each other; I can’t imagine the bigger schools.
I’ve been so, so happy with all the great signups for memberships at PlainEnglish.com, including our free membership. And our free membership includes access to a special writing course about your experience with the coronavirus. For some of you—those of you in Europe and the US—that experience is getting closer to normal. But for others, especially in Brazil and other parts of Latin America, you may still be experiencing the worst of the pandemic.
It’s good to process your thoughts in your second language—to be able to express what you’re thinking and feeling in English. Depending on your personal situation, you may never have had to talk about this situation in English before. That’s why I put together this writing course. It’s five days of video lessons and activities, and at the end, you’ll put together your full story about the coronavirus.
That’s included in a free membership at PlainEnglish.com. Just go right to the home page—it’s clear how to sign up from there. And once you’re in, you’ll be able to access that course. PlainEnglish.com. And—I almost forgot—if you complete the course by June 30, which is in about a week and a half, you’ll be eligible for some special prizes. No reason not to do it—it’s totally free. Sign up at PlainEnglish.com.
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