Programme

The Job Market Event will take place on 10-11 December 2020 between 14:30 - 19:00 (Singapore Time), 15:30 - 20:00 (Seoul/Tokyo Time), 17:30 - 22:00 (Melbourne Time).

Details of the panel can be found below:

Day: Thursday 10th December

Time: 9:30am GMT, 5:30pm Singapore, 6:30pm Seoul, 8:30pm Melbourne

Title: COVID19 and Higher Education

Chair: Christian Dustmann (President of AASLE, University College London & CReAM)

Panelists: Hanming Fang (ShanghaiTech University & University of Pennsylvania)

Stephen Machin (LSE)

Abigail Payne (The University of Melbourne)

Michèle Tertilt (Mannheim University)

Description: The current crisis induced by the worldwide spread of COVID19 has had dramatic effects on education. The closure of schools, the difficulty of what will happen with exams, and ongoing challenges to both teachers and pupils in maintaining education amid uncertainties induced through the ongoing health crisis are huge. These have already exacerbated existent inequalities in educational attainments. The crisis has also had huge effects on higher education, both for students as well as educational institutions. Being a highly international and global sector the closure of borders and internal travel restrictions are having a stark impact on the sector. The uncertainty about the future course of the health crisis affected has made meaningful planning of budgets and educational services extremely difficult, and the dramatic impact the crisis had on the economy creates an extremely challenging job market for university graduates on all levels. Despite the hardship already caused, the crisis is far from over, and restrictions will impact on higher education institutions for the foreseeable future, and most likely into the longer term.

This panel will discuss some of the key issues that affect higher education institutions as well as students: How long will the crisis last? What will be the effect on higher education institutions? How will learning losses of pupils and their unequal distribution affect university intake, and how should universities respond to that in their admission policies? How will this year’s JM for PhD candidates be affected, and will there be some normalisation in the near future? How will universities and their funding models respond to this crisis? Will the crisis be differently felt in Europe, the US and the Asia/Pacific region? Should policy interventions be made? And if so, how and in what directions?