Accessibility and inclusivity in higher education and the impact of Covid-19: Implications for active citizenship and university lifelong learning

Abstract

Never before has the higher education sector being challenged the way it has been in the last few months, triggered by the disruption caused by the pervasiveness of the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced higher education institutions to change the way that they have been teaching. Almost overnight, higher education institutions had to move to distance teaching to ensure that learning occurs even in the midst of a lockdown (Marinoni, van’t Land & Jensen, 2020, p. 23). However, this move depended by and large on availability of information, communication infrastructure, technological devices, internet connectivity as well as capacities to teach online (ibid., pp. 24–26). Many students were also not well prepared or competent to study online as they were struggling with motivation, finding support or an adequate learning environment for remote learning (Means, Neisler, with Langer Research Associates, 2020; QS, 2020).