Abstract
There is increasing recognition worldwide of the importance of academic activities, specifically in situations of pandemics. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the effects of COVID-19 on lecturers/researchers and Ph.D. and master students who have faced unexpected and continuous disruption in their teaching and research activities. To fulfil the aims, the study focused on a mixed method approach quantitative study based on a questionnaire administered on social networks and open questions. The unit of analysis was lecturers/researchers and Ph.D. and master students. The results obtained show that this lengthy interruption had severe impacts on their activities, requiring new competencies and capacities to deal with changes in a short period of time, including less positive feelings affecting them and their families. The main contribution of this study lies in identifying the barriers and opportunities created by this virus in the academic world and in presenting a theoretical framework to improve the situation, given that the confinement exponentiated negative and psychological feelings in academics, although telework is seen as a positive factor with continuity in the future, as a way to foster the social, environmental sustainability of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the wellbeing of their human capital. As implications for practice, the evidence points to the need for academics to be provided with training in E-learning, about technological tools for use in distance-learning and to reconsider how they carry out their research on the ground.
Highlights
The first cases of COVID-19 appeared in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, a city with around 11 million inhabitants, with this being reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 31 December
Aiming to obtain information about the real situation experienced by researchers regarding the effects of COVID-19 on their scientific activities and careers, the 254 answers received led to identifying some relevant aspects
The results presented here show that the impacts of COVID-19 in the academic sphere resulted from rising to meet a challenge by ensuring the continuity of academic activities resorting to technological tools, which does not mean that severe impacts were not felt in some activities
Summary
This virus spread exponentially across borders, and by 11 March 2020, there were 118.000 cases of infection in 114 countries and 4.291 deaths, causing the WHO to declare the state of a pandemic [1] Following this declaration, exceptional measures of lockdown and social distancing were adopted worldwide, with higher education institutions (HEIs) and their research centres being no exception [2]. Exceptional measures of lockdown and social distancing were adopted worldwide, with higher education institutions (HEIs) and their research centres being no exception [2] This decision is reported in the vast literature on the closure of HEIs [3] in order to reduce the spread of infectious diseases and break transmission chains [4,5,6]. In this scenario of a growing pandemic, at the beginning of March, HEIs in Portugal suspended all their face-to-face activities and immediately changed to the online learning format [7]
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