Effects of Digitalisation on Higher Education in a Sustainable Development Framework—Online Learning Challenges during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Tudorel Toader, Marieta Safta, Cristina Titirișcă and Bogdan Firtescu
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Tudorel Toader: Faculty of Law, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, 700506 Iași, Romania
Marieta Safta: Faculty of Law, “Titu Maiorescu” University of Bucharest, 040051 Bucharest, Romania
Cristina Titirișcă: Faculty of Public Administration and Management, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010615 Bucharest, Romania

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-25

Abstract: Throughout the planet, the medical challenges posed by the pandemic caused by the SARS-Cov-2/COVID-19 coronavirus have overlapped, inter alia , with the necessity to continue the academic process on every level. Romania was no exception. With the new vaccines against COVID-19, the hope of resuming face-to-face activity, considered as ‘normal’ before 2020, has emerged. In these circumstances, not at all far-fetched, certain questions have arisen, such as: should and must the online university education be completely removed? Should this form of education be continued? If so, to what extent? We have used econometric methods related to ARDL (auto regressive distributed lag models) such as pooled mean group (PMG) and mean group (MG) and used different tests for unit roots for the stationarity check of the series implied. The results show the positive effect of digitalisation on tertiary education and also the positive impact of the latter on sustainable development, as a base for future stimulation in public policies. The present study also aims to harness the university experience of these times, from some of the main Romanian university centres; the method used was a quantitative and qualitative research based on a questionnaire, which was answered by a number of 258 university teachers and 1569 students from prestigious public and private universities. The results of this analysis allowed us to conclude that most of the participants in the university educational process have adapted to the online activity, and the latter ‘saved’ the academic years 2019–2020 and, respectively, 2020–2021. The present study is useful for tertiary education institution and policymakers in terms of formulating strategies and policy recommendations to support teachers and students during any future pandemics.

Keywords: COVID-19; university education; teaching; on-line; sustainability; ARDL; ECT; pooled mean group; mean group (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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