PLANNING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS - CHAOS AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dabgoudw

Global higher education is portrayed as experiencing a proliferation of means and confusion of goals, intensified by technology-driven uncertainty and shifting priorities. The COVID-19 pandemic is presented as an abrupt catalyst that forced higher education leaders to respond with unprecedented change and fear. The text explores why planning became essential amid chaos, and asks what lessons can be learned from this unexpected, worldwide disruption.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Need for Planning

Crisis anticipation and resilience

Transition to remote online teaching

What is Planning?

PLANNING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS: CHAOS AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC PAMELA A. LEMOINE Troy University, U.S.A. MICHAEL D. RICHARDSON Global Tertiary Institute, U.S.A. ABSTRACT Albert Einstein once remarked that the world was characterized by a proliferation of means and a confusion of goals. This certainly characterizes the state of global higher education today. The age of technology and the information society are sweeping educators towards a future dependent upon knowing how more than knowing what. Throughout the world, college and university administrators are attempting to determine global scope coupled with the impact of technology. To many educators higher education is now a place of innovation and change, while to others it is amorass of change and fear. However, the COVID-19 pandemic created change and fear gripped higher education and forced change that was totally unexpected. What are the lessons to be learned from this forced change? No man ever planned to fail – What probably happened was, he failed to plan. – Will Rogers INTRODUCTION The modern world is changing quickly in many unanticipated ways. Stability has given way to uncertainty, panic, and chaos in the contemporary world (Bosire, 2017) . In the current environment strategic higher education leaders look for ways to manage in an imbalanced world where the focus is on leading for survival, where the current and future are unpredictable, capacity is uncertain and unknown, and learning is an issue of social and economic security (Beerkens, 2018) . Such a time calls for unprecedented response to an unseen enemy with the capacity to render higher education useless. To combat such an enemy, planning is an obvious necessity which demands that leaders plan for an undetermined outcome (Marginson, 2020) . How did higher education arrive at such a condition (Yan, 2020)? The outbreak of COVID-19 has forced changes due to an environment of uncertainty, chaos, and fear as the infectious virus spread throughout the world (Bhumenstyk, 2020) . The COVID-19 virus has had an unprecedented impact. As the COVID-19 virus spread from other countries and infections increased, China closed higher education institutions to limit its spread; however, COVID-19 continued to move from one country to another causing a worldwide health emergency (Bozhurt & Sharma, 2020; Zizek) . Higher education institutions worldwide were forced to close, disrupting a $600 billion world-wide industry (Hechinger & Lorin, 2020) . NEED FOR PLANNING Higher education institutions have two basic choices in preparing for, managing and mitigating crises. They can try to anticipate and avert them, and/or become resilient (Lemoine, Hackett, & Richardson, 2016). It is desirable, of course, to anticipate and avert crises whenever Educational Planning 2020 43 Vol. 27, No. 3 possible, but anticipation can be effective only in situations where (1) the probability of the worst risks to be faced are known, and (2) knowledge can be used to avoid or mitigate negative outcomes (O’Regan & Ghobadian, 2007) . Although leaders in academe have a crucial role in the response of their institution tocrises, in reality, the role of campus leaders in establishing a culture of trust, collaboration, and shared leadership prior to a crisis will more significantly influence the ability of the institution to withstand times of crisis (Gigliotti & Fortunato, 2017) . Faced with the uncertainty and growing intensity of the novel coronavirus pandemic, academic leaders in colleges and universities in the United States and around the world made the strategic decision to transition to online teaching (Duari & Sarkar, 2019; Heitz, Laboissiere, Sanghvi, & Sarakatsannis, 2020) . The forced change to remote learning was stressful as neither faculty nor students were prepared for the rapid change to online teaching since many academic institutions lacked the faculty with experience in online teaching (Teresev

FAQs

Why does the document argue that planning is necessary for higher education leaders?

It explains that crises can render higher education useless, so leaders must plan for undetermined outcomes and strengthen management capability under uncertainty.

What major change did universities make during the COVID-19 outbreak?

Academic leaders made a strategic decision to transition to online teaching, and many institutions shifted to remote online delivery rapidly.

What problem did the document identify with existing crisis plans before COVID-19?

It states that most institutions had plans for short-term, typically local issues, with few addressing a long-lasting pandemic affecting higher education globally.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dabgoudw