Building an African knowledge base for a new sub-field of higher education from the ground up requires ethnographic work, immersion, deep understanding. In the context of an extra-ordinary crisis - the C-19 pandemic - the traumatic
Extract from the Editorial:
"Over the course of their history, African universities have had to contend with many crises, and they have learnt to quickly adapt to ensure that conditions for teaching and learning, as well as student development and support, continue. Political turmoil, economic downturns, fiscal austerity, social conflicts, staff and student strikes, virus outbreaks and even civil wars have forced universities into circumstances that require difficult decisions in a context of great uncertainty and complexity (Fomunyam, 2017). While such disaster periods and events often have deeply disruptive effects on the university community, they tend to last a limited time only. However, the choices made during such periods of crisis frequently outlive the crisis itself and come to define a university’s functioning well after the crisis has passed (Adedire, 2018; Chetty & Luescher, 2021).
In the past, crises that impacted African universities were typically limited to a particular region, nation or institution in their scope. In 2020, however, the global Corona virus disease (Covid‑19) came to affect universities comprehensively and worldwide in an unprecedented manner (Schreiber & Ludeman, 2020). African universities across the continent needed to respond to the global health threat and state-instituted lockdown restrictions.
University leaders across the continent and globally had to decide on various kinds of emergency measures and reimagine teaching and learning and student engagement and support in order to ‘save the academic year’ (Dell, 2020; Moja, 2021). The leadership of Student Affairs and Services(SAS) were typically part of such decision-making from the start (Schreiber et al., 2020; Perozzi et al., under review). The participation of SAS leaders and practitioners in the decision-making was crucial as they often are the first port of call when students are in dire straits and require support, be it social, psychological counselling, academic advising, student governance related, access to resources, etc. And yet, even SAS practitioners were not quite prepared for the unprecedented crisis that was about to hit the higher education environment locally, on the African continent, and at a global level. This special issue provided SAS practitioners with an opportunity to reflect on their work, its appropriateness, and to implement risk-mitigating strategies even as the crisis was unfolding.
As campus after campus closed, leaving only a remnant of ‘essential services’ to continue on site in some cases, learning in most universities was either suspended or moved online in some form of ‘emergency remote teaching’ (Adotey, 2020; Commonwealth of Learning, 2020; Dell & Sawael, 2020). Similarly, most SAS provision either moved online or was suspended if they were considered ‘non-essential’ services (Ayele, 2020). Key higher education actors like the Association of African Universities (AAU) swiftly realised that any form of online learning would potentially exclude many students across the continent who would normally benefit from a campus environment that made up for the lack of a conducive home learning environment or provide other forms of essential learning support (AAU, 2020; Schreiber et al., 2020). Thus, on the one hand, the AAU called on African universities to implement online learning urgently, while also urging African governments to invest in digital infrastructure in rural areas and promote access for all those unable to access online educational services (AAU, 2020; Chetty & Luescher, 2021). Student Affairs practitioners have been challenged to respond in innovate ways to meet the diverse needs of different students, enhance student learning and development, and advance the social justice imperative that underpins and drives SAS work.
As much as most governments issued “one size fits all” instructions to universities, on the ground the Student Affairs practitioners had to contend with their diverse local realities. Universities with international students and those with students from far-flung regions faced different challenges in assisting their students’ speedy return home than others with a more local student body. There are instances where international students were sent home without financial help from their institutions or assistance from home. Some highly resourced universities were able to issue students who did not have electronic devices like a laptop or tablet with such, along with data vouchers and so forth. Some universities who already used advanced online learning platforms were able to expand their use and deliver learning in an advanced online learning environment while others had to improvise (Chetty & Luescher, 2021). Universities who had a student body made up largely of financially needy students who needed to return to their communities, often permeated by crime and violence, needed to mitigate the impact of these factors and support students or bring them back to campus (UNDP, 2020). Some universities, which had faced crisis prior to the Covid pandemic, had experienced Student Affairs staff and programmes that were attuned to crisis and remote contexts (Schreiber et al., 2020).
Considering higher education and SAS in Africa during the Covid‑19 pandemic while moving forward, there are a number of lessons we need to keep in mind. Firstly, the experience of past crises on the African continent and beyond teaches that emergency protocols often turn into, or inform, new standard operational policy after a crisis subsides (Chetty & Luescher, 2021). In light of this, it is clearly imperative to describe and analyse these moments of crisis, the conditions that gave rise to them, the ways the crisis was managed, and the changes in policy and practice that ensued from it, so as to be able to reflect on them, theorise and learn from them.
The closure of institutions coupled with remote teaching, added more pressure on the students and SAS practitioners. The switch to remote teaching laid bare the enormity of the digital divide on the African continent in its starkest and most iniquitous form as students in far-flung remote rural areas were unable to get access to academic programme. Quintana and Quintana (2020) and Händel et al. (2020) indicate that during the pandemic there were many factors that led to compounded anxiety amongst students including “grade anxiety”, absence of adequate infrastructure and overall unpreparedness of institutions and students. There were concerns about the mental health of students and staff and in some instances, institutions added more service and resources to address the challenges (Moja, 2020). Some of the issues that came up for students as a result of being removed from their campuses had to do with them not having appropriate learning spaces and an increased food insecurity as they depended on their financial support that includes expenses related to their living expenses. For a foreseeable future there is a strong likelihood of studies to be conducted to extract more of the lessons learned and the long-term impact of the pandemic."
Extract (pages v-vii) from: Luescher, T.M., Schreiber, B., Moja, T., Mandew, M., Wahl, W.P. & Ayele, B. (2021). The Impact of Covid‑19 on Student Affairs and Higher Education in Africa. Journal of Student Affairs in Africa, 9(1), v‑xiii. DOI: 10.35293/JSAA.v9i1.1721
