The higher education experience was markedly different than usual for those enrolling during the pandemic. Higher education institutions of all kinds found their instructional methods profoundly disrupted by the closure of their physical campuses, and the crisis exposed the urgent need for policy makers and institutional leaders to adjust their established educational and policy models. The OECD has collected comparative statistics across a number of education systems to track developments throughout the pandemic, including the impact on the higher education sector. Andreas Schleicher presents the results of this data collection and outlines what it means for the future of higher education.

1. THE STATE OF HIGHER
EDUCATION: ONE YEAR
INTO THE COVID-19
PANDEMIC

2. LEARNING DISRUPTION: RAPID
TRANSITION TO
DISTANCE LEARNING

3. Closures of physical campuses of higher education institutions as of 1 February 2021
Figure 1.1
Source: OECD/UIS/UNESCO/UNICEF/WB Special Survey on COVID. March 2021.

4. Percentage of students who enrolled exclusively in distance learning in higher
education over the 2018/19 academic year
Figure 1.3
Source: OECD/UIS/UNESCO/UNICEF/WB Special Survey on COVID. March 2021.

5. Outsourcing online courses in higher education institutions
Figure 1.5
Source: Higher Education Policy Survey 2020 on Resourcing, OECD

6. Percentage of researchers using online tools or solutions for the following
scientific/research tasks in the preceding 12 months, 2018
Figure 1.6
Source: OECD International Survey of Scientific Authors (Bello and Galindo-Rueda, 2020[5]).

7. Readiness of higher education institutions to move online
Table 1.2
□ means rarely available, □ □ means not always available, □ □ □ means generally available, and □ □ □ □
means fully available.
Source: Salmi, 2020[6], COVID’s Lessons for Global Higher Education, Lumina Foundation, https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED611329.

8. HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION
CLOSURES: ONLINE LEARNING AS A
NORM

9. Extent of the implementation of given actions by European higher education
institutions to respond to the pandemic crisis, April-May 2020
Figure 2.2
Source: European Commission, 2020[8], European Universities Initiative, Survey on the impact of COVID-19 on European Universities, Main conclusions,
https://www.ua.gov.tr/media/5lfnrbx2/european-universities-initiative-results-of-covid-19-impact-survey.pdf.
Notes: Survey administrated to the 114 higher education institutions taking part in the first 17 European Universities Initiative.
The survey was conducted between April and May 2020. Scale 0 to 100% of students impacted.

10. Difficulties with learning environment during pandemic crisis among European
higher education students
Figure 2.3
Source: Doolan et al., 2021[11], Student life during the Covid19 pandemic lockdown Europe-wide insights, ESU - European Students’ Union, https://www.esu-
online.org/?publication=student-life-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-lockdown-europe-wide-insights.
Notes: Online questionnaire administrated by the European Students’ Union to undergraduate and Master’s, full-time and part-time students enrolled in European higher
education institutions during April 2020. In total, 17 116 respondents from 41 European countries accessed the questionnaire.
Ability to access each of the following resources when studying :

11. Difficulties faced by higher education students in the United States as they
transitioned to online learning, by race/ethnicity, May-June 2020
Figure 2.4
Source: Digital Promise, 2020[15], A National survey of Undergraduates during the Covid19 pandemic, https://digitalpromise.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/ELE_CoBrand_DP_FINAL_3.pdf.
Note: This survey was administrated to a random national sample of 1 008 undergraduates that started with in-person courses before the pandemic and that
finished with online courses between May and June 2020 in the United States.

12. Measures targeting populations at risk of exclusion from distance education
platforms during the first wave of institutional closures in 2020
Figure 2.5
Source: OECD/UIS/UNESCO/UNICEF/WB Special Survey on COVID. March 2021.

13. Policy actions taken by public authorities in higher education in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic
Figure 2.6
Source: Higher Education Policy Survey 2020 on Resourcing, OECD

14. Changes planned to the higher education budget in response to the pandemic in
2020
Table 2.1
Source: OECD/UIS/UNESCO/UNICEF/WB Special Survey on COVID. March 2021.

15. Share of international/foreign students in higher education by programme level, 2018
Figure 2.8
Source: Adapted from OECD, 2020[25], OECD Education at a Glance (database), (https://doi.org/10.1787/19991487).

16. Distribution of foreign/international students in tertiary education, by country of
origin (2018)
Figure 2.9
Source: Adapted from OECD, 2020[25], OECD Education at a Glance (database), (https://doi.org/10.1787/19991487).

17. Change to the share of foreign/international higher education students between
2019-2020 and 2020-2021
Table 2.2
Source: OECD/UIS/UNESCO/UNICEF/WB Special Survey on COVID. March 2021.

18. HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS RE-
OPENING: LESSONS AND POTENTIAL
IMPLICATIONS

19. Share of students who attended higher education in person during the first period
institutions reopened in 2020
Figure 3.1
Source: OECD/UIS/UNESCO/UNICEF/WB Special Survey on COVID. March 2021.

20. Strategies for re-opening physical campuses of higher education institutions
following the first wave of closures in 2020
Figure 3.2
Source: OECD/UIS/UNESCO/UNICEF/WB Special Survey on COVID. March 2021.

21. Distribution of public and private expenditure on educational institutions, 2017
Figure 3.3
Source: Adapted from OECD, 2020[25], OECD Education at a Glance (database), (https://doi.org/10.1787/19991487).

22. Potential factors determining the resilience of higher education systems to the
post-COVID-19 economic and financial context
Table 3.4