Academic Standards and Quality Assurance: The Impact of COVID-19 on University Degree Programs

Kelum A. A. Gamage; R. G. G. Roshan Pradeep; Vesna Najdanovic-Visak; Nanda Gunawardhana

doi:10.3390/su122310032

Academic Standards and Quality Assurance: The Impact of COVID-19 on University Degree Programs

Kelum A. A. Gamage^*, R. G. G. Roshan Pradeep, Vesna Najdanovic-Visak, Nanda Gunawardhana

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

Abstract

COVID-19, caused by a member of the coronavirus family of viruses, has spread to most countries around the world since it was first recorded in humans in China in late 2019. Closing universities and cancelling all face-to-face activities have become a COVID-19 inevitable reality in many parts of the world. Its impact on university programs, particularly to maintain academic standards and quality assurance procedures, has become significantly more challenging and complex. New ways of working digitally, to minimize disruption to daily operations, have also led to enormous anxiety and uncertainty within the student population, and meeting students’ expectations has also become significantly more difficult. This paper reviews actions taken by universities to safeguard high academic standards and quality assurance procedures during this time and appraise the challenges and impacts on students’ academic performance.

Original language	English
Article number	10032
Number of pages	14
Journal	Sustainability
Volume	12
Issue number	23
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/su122310032
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2020

Bibliographical note

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Keywords

Accreditation
Assessment moderation
Assessment of learning outcomes
External quality assurance
Internal quality assurance

Access to Document

10.3390/su122310032Licence: CC BY 3.0

Academic Standards and Quality Assurance
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Final published version, 379 KBLicence: CC BY 3.0

Cite this

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abstract = "COVID-19, caused by a member of the coronavirus family of viruses, has spread to most countries around the world since it was first recorded in humans in China in late 2019. Closing universities and cancelling all face-to-face activities have become a COVID-19 inevitable reality in many parts of the world. Its impact on university programs, particularly to maintain academic standards and quality assurance procedures, has become significantly more challenging and complex. New ways of working digitally, to minimize disruption to daily operations, have also led to enormous anxiety and uncertainty within the student population, and meeting students{\textquoteright} expectations has also become significantly more difficult. This paper reviews actions taken by universities to safeguard high academic standards and quality assurance procedures during this time and appraise the challenges and impacts on students{\textquoteright} academic performance.",

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AU - Gamage, Kelum A. A.

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AU - Najdanovic-Visak, Vesna

AU - Gunawardhana, Nanda

N1 - © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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AB - COVID-19, caused by a member of the coronavirus family of viruses, has spread to most countries around the world since it was first recorded in humans in China in late 2019. Closing universities and cancelling all face-to-face activities have become a COVID-19 inevitable reality in many parts of the world. Its impact on university programs, particularly to maintain academic standards and quality assurance procedures, has become significantly more challenging and complex. New ways of working digitally, to minimize disruption to daily operations, have also led to enormous anxiety and uncertainty within the student population, and meeting students’ expectations has also become significantly more difficult. This paper reviews actions taken by universities to safeguard high academic standards and quality assurance procedures during this time and appraise the challenges and impacts on students’ academic performance.

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KW - Assessment moderation

KW - Assessment of learning outcomes

KW - External quality assurance

KW - Internal quality assurance

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ER -

Academic Standards and Quality Assurance: The Impact of COVID-19 on University Degree Programs

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Bibliographical note

Keywords

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