Making Mobility the Norm – lessons learned in times of COVID19

Making Mobility the Norm – lessons learned in times of COVID19

July 15, 2020
 

The Corona pandemic not only affected the administration and implementation of our project, but it also changed the scope of it as well. Following the spread of the Corona virus, Higher Education Institutions changed the layout of teaching; as teaching switched gear and teaching staff as well as students faced online semesters, international student mobility had to adapt quickly as well. In Summer 2020, many students had to cancel their mobilities, others who could stay abroad still took online classes, while student facilities, as well as administration, were forced into lock-down. Planning the coming academic year 2020/21, we expect hybrid semesters, with a flexible mix of online- and on-site teaching, to be the new norm, with students choosing between various combinations of blended mobility. For our project NORM, this means a chance as well as a challenge, as the status quo of student mobility has fundamentally changed within a very short period of time. This relates to access and barriers to physical as well as virtual mobility, student expectations, as well as structural aspects of international credit mobility within the HEIs. In the upcoming months, the consortium will evaluate the developments and include the results of this analysis in the next phases of the project.