COVID-19 Crisis and Higher Education in India

Abstract

As higher education has to reposition itself with changing landscape due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the established mode of functioning has come under the scanner. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a paradigm shift in history, affecting nearly every aspect of the education system. The pandemic has provided both challenge and opportunity to redefine, reform an enhance the effectiveness of higher education institutions. But this shift can only be undertaken by institutional capability and respected higher education institutions’ autonomy. Understanding how COVID-19 has changed the way of governance, pedagogy, and future of higher education in India, is the main objective of this study. The opportunities that the changes have brought to us and the challenges put forward by the paradigm shift in higher education remain centered in this analysis. Both primary and secondary sources have been utilized to conclude. This chapter first contextualizes higher education in the COVID-19 situation and then discusses major paradigm shifts in the Indian higher education sector. It systematically evaluates the consequences that arose from those shifting paradigms during the pandemic. The chapter, by examining responses of the government and educational institutions to the COVID-19 pandemic concludes with forecasting future resilience towards ‘New Normal’.