Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the key challenges, approaches and lessons of the higher educational institutions (HEIs) in the context of COVID-19.

Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted to understand the key challenges being faced by the HEIs around the world during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 150 responses were collected from 65 universities, located in 29 countries.

Findings – The results show that 47% of respondents with defined universities believe their institutions lacked a permanent or dedicated emergency management office, and 41% said their HEIs lacked a general business continuity plan for an emergency. In universities with BCPs, 33%of the plans do not cover biological hazards and pandemic risk management, and 60% of the plans did not include conducting any advanced simulation exercises. More than 70% the responded said their instruction, information sharing and decisionmaking process were timely and open. The major challenges identified were a lack of adequate preparedness for pandemic and of pandemic-specific advanced simulation exercises. The next major challenges were the change in the mode of teaching to online lectures and working from home. Based on these challenges, a set of short- and long-term recommendations were proposed.

Originality/value – This was the first survey in academic institutions in post COVID-19 context. The findings will be useful for preparing for biological and other related hazards.

The 2013 summer school was organised on July 23-25, 2013 at Tohoku University as the first major activity under the Multi-Hazards Program. The summer school was attended by 31 participants from 9 countries, and it consisted of 17 students, 13 faculty members and 1 APRU secretariat staff.

The 3rd APRU Multi-Hazards Summer School was held at Tohoku University on 21-24 July 2015. More than 40 participants from 10 countries participated in the event to learn the lessons-learnt and experience from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and discuss the role of universities to implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The 6th APRU (Association of Pacific Rim Universities) Multi-Hazards Summer School was held at Tohoku University on 24-27 July 2018. In addition to the participants from the APRU member universities, the students from the Young Leaders Program (YLP) of the Northeast Asia Economic Forum (NEAEF) also attended this event on 24-25 July.

The event received total more than 60 participants to learn the lessons-learnt and experience from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, the recovery efforts in the affected areas and discuss the contribution of academia in the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk
Reduction (SFDRR).