The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Teaching Outcomes in Higher Education

Philipp Hansen (), Lennart Struth (), Max Thon () and Tim Umbach
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Philipp Hansen: University of Cologne
Lennart Struth: University of Cologne
Max Thon: University of Cologne

No 73, ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series from University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic forced much of the world to adapt suddenly to severe restrictions. In this study, we attempt to quantify the impact of the pandemic on student performance in higher education. To collect data on important covariates, we conducted a survey among first-year students of Microeconomics at the University of Cologne. In contrast to other studies, we are able to consider a particularly suitable performance measure that was not affected by the COVID-19 restrictions implemented shortly before the start of the summer term 2020. While the average performance improves in the first term affected by the restrictions, this does not apply to students with a low socioeconomic background. Trying to identify more specific channels explaining this finding, interestingly, our data yield no evidence that the average improvement results from the altered teaching formats, suggesting instead that the enhanced performance stems from an increase in available study time.

Keywords: COVID-19; Higher Education; Wellbeing; Education and Inequality; Introductory Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A22 I23 I24 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2021-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-ltv
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://www.econtribute.de/RePEc/ajk/ajkdps/ECONtribute_073_2021.pdf Second version, 2021 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:073

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