Post COVID-19: New Era for Higher Education Systems

Abstract

On November 17, 2019, according to several sources, the first case of COVID-19 appeared in Wuhan, China, for a 55-year-old man. In addition to that, evolutionary estimates in genetic studies conducted in the early months of 2020 indicated that the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Virus most likely transfered to humans in the period between October 6th, 2019 and December 11th, 2019. The reason that led to the rapid spread of this epidemic is that its symptoms may not appear on the infected person in which, symptoms of the disease might not be shown before two weeks of the infection. The World Health Organization WHO recognized the spread of COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11th, 2020. In the first period of the virus’s spread, specifically in January and February of 2020, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Japan, and China reported increasing numbers of cases. Later that month, specifically on the 26th of February, the number of cases outside China rapidly exceeded the number of cases inside China, with the total number of cases reaching 2,790 distributed in 37 countries. During the next few days, the virus spread around the world at a steady speed, and there was no way or method to find a solution or treatment for its spread. COVID-19 had devastating effects on all living areas and on all industries, in which, it had shocking effects and frightening figures related to the movement of the global economy and companies in a manner related to the repetition and duration of closures in addition to effects beyond description related to current and future effects in connection with the methodology of higher education, universities, and educational institutions, and the related future repercussions. COVID-19 causes many symptoms such as fever, dry cough, fatigue, headache, loss of the sense of smell and taste, it also causes difficulty breathing and nasal congestion. COVID-19 is an abbreviation for coronavirus disease of 2019. Throught out this paper, The virus is mentioned as Coronavirus, COVID, and COVID-19.

Full text

International Journal of Applied Science and Engineering, 8(2): 131-145, December 2020
DOI: 10.30954/2322-0465.2.2020.6
©2020 New Delhi Publishers. All rights reserved
How to cite this article: Kayyali, M. (2020). Post COVID-19: New Era for Higher Education Systems. IJASE., 8(02): 131-145.
Source of Support: None; Conflict of Interest: None
Post COVID-19: New Era for Higher Education Systems
Mustafa Kayyali
Azteca University, Mexico, North America
Corresponding author: kayyali@heranking.com
Received: 19 Sept., 2020 Revised: 13 Nov., 2020 Accepted: 02 Dec., 2020
ABSTRACT
On November 17, 2019, according to several sources, the rst case of COVID-19 appeared in Wuhan,
China, for a 55-year-old man. In addition to that, evolutionary estimates in genetic studies conducted
in the early months of 2020 indicated that the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Virus most
likely transfered to humans in the period between October 6th, 2019 and December 11th, 2019. The reason
that led to the rapid spread of this epidemic is that its symptoms may not appear on the infected person in
which, symptoms of the disease might not be shown before two weeks of the infection. The World Health
Organization WHO recognized the spread of COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11th, 2020. In the rst
period of the virus’s spread, specically in January and February of 2020, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Japan,
and China reported increasing numbers of cases. Later that month, specically on the 26th of February, the
number of cases outside China rapidly exceeded the number of cases inside China, with the total number
of cases reaching 2,790 distributed in 37 countries. During the next few days, the virus spread around the
world at a steady speed, and there was no way or method to nd a solution or treatment for its spread.
COVID-19 had devastating effects on all living areas and on all industries, in which, it had shocking
effects and frightening gures related to the movement of the global economy and companies in a manner
related to the repetition and duration of closures in addition to effects beyond description related to current
and future effects in connection with the methodology of higher education, universities, and educational
institutions, and the related future repercussions. COVID-19 causes many symptoms such as fever, dry
cough, fatigue, headache, loss of the sense of smell and taste, it also causes difculty breathing and nasal
congestion. COVID-19 is an abbreviation for coronavirus disease of 2019. Throught out this paper, The
virus is mentioned as Coronavirus, COVID, and COVID-19.
Keywords: Higher education - universities - higher education institutions –accreditation - future -
Coronavirus–COVID-19 - the future of higher education.
In the past months, many studies related to the effect of COVID-19 on higher education institutions and
operation were published and many seminers and meetings were addressing the virus [22]. This study
Research Case Study APPLIED MANAGEMENT

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may not create new ideas or present new prospects, but rather; aims to provide general and comprehensive
clarication and proposed solutions to overcome this crisis facing humanity, and mitigate its effects.
This research also focuses on a very important point, which is that even if a cure and drug are found for
COVID-19, humanity could be exposed in the coming years to more deadly, destructive, and impactful
epidemics than COVID-19, and it must then wait for many years before the appropriate treatment appears.
This research assumes the possibility of beneting from solutions and ideas resulting from COVID-19
in the event that another similar epidemic emerges in the coming years. The author of this research does
not indicate or hint at the emergence of other epidemics in the coming years, but rather indicates the
possibility of their emergence taking into account all the data related the emergence of Corona. The
study provides an explanation of the effects of Corona on the structure of international higher education
systems and quality assurance bodies, its impact, the mechanism of dealing with the virus, and some
steps that can be taken to mitigate the possible impact.
A number of researchers and independent sources have indicated that more than 147 million people have
lost their jobs around the world due to the spread of the COVID-19 [1], which caused workers to lose an
estimated $ 3.5 trillion in the wage mass, according to Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International
Labor Organization ILO [51]. The level of global consumption decreased by 4.2 percent, equivalent to
$ 3.8 trillion, which is equivalent to the GDP of a country such as Germany or Spain, and these nancial
repercussions mentioned above, in their combined cost, exceed the costs of the wars of the United States
of America in each of the wars of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or the Gulf War [30][43].
Despite the very damaging effects of COVID-19 on the sector of Higher Education, the virus led to
great progress of a lot of medical and scientic research related to immunity, prevention, and protection,
and it has also contributed to the development of studies related to viruses, their internal structure and
the method of transmission of infection. In addition, it contributed to the emergence of many types of
research related to the development of human immunity and the reasons that prompted the virus to infect
old people without infecting children.
Humanity has always been able to overcome the plagues it encountered and managed to survive, continue,
recover, and start over and over again. Throughout history, the world has witnessed many deadly diseases
and epidemics [41]some of them were epidemics conned to specic countries or geographical areas and
some were global epidemics. Those epidemics claimed the lives of tens or even hundreds of millions
of people [21]and caused demographic, social, and economic changes in the whole world. Pandemics
changed the course of history, such as the plague that spread in the thirteen and fourteenth centuries
[39], the plague of London, which appeared in 1665 [47], and caused the death of a quarter of the city’s
population, and smallpox, which appeared in the fteenth century in the North and South American
continents, the cholera epidemic that appeared in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries [27] that caused
the death of millions, and yellow fever that appeared in the late nineteenth century [17]. The Spanish u
that appeared in 1918 [46] and also caused the death of millions, Avian inuenza appeared in 2004 [25]
and swine u appeared in 2009 [52].
The history of mankind does not seem pure from epidemics and diseases, as it seems as if humanity has
been for long ages in a state of war with an invisible enemy, and its fortresses or headquarters cannot be
attacked or surprised or prepared for a specic war. This enemy is considered one of the most dangerous
enemies at all because it attacks people without a prior warning.

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Objective of the Research
This research aims to provide a brief overview of the impact of COVID-19 on the higher education sector,
HEIs and higher education institutions, and the challenges that universities and accreditation assurances
agencies are facing, and the measures those instititions are preparing in order to stand against this
devastating epidemic that has had deadly and devastating effects in all elds, businesses and industries.
The research also aims to provide a ray of hope and a candle of light to illuminate the way for all parties
and stakeholders related, connected and active in the international higher education system. The research
tries to present some suggestions, advice and recommendations that can serve decision-makers in the
eld of higher education.
Economic consequences of Covid-19
The outbreak of the epidemic caused global economic losses estimated at 50 billion USD in February 2020
alone [13]. Some studies indicate that the tourism sector alone is exposed to losses estimated at about $
1.2 trillion, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimates that
for every $ 1 million lost in international tourism receipts, a country’s national income could decrease by
up to $ 3 million. The matter has catastrophic effects on the employment and business sector [16]. The
whole world stands in a state of fear and anxiety about the pandemic that has swept all the countries of
the world and caused the world to change within the past year as if it is at a crossroads between reaching
the oasis of safety or the inevitable fallout that cannot be tolerated. All researchers around the world
silently watch the evolution of this virus, which appeared as we mentioned in the introduction in China, a
strongly rising economic and geopolitical power that has caused heavy losses exceeding billions of dollars.
As a result of this deadly virus, all international economic development processes have stopped,
international trade rates have decreased, and industries related to alternative energy have decreased as
a result of the stopping of the international economy to the extent that has pushed the manufacturers of
solar energy and hybrid energy systems to reduce their activity and the level of their manufacture. In
addition, the virus has caused devastating consequences on the sectors of tourism, industry, energy, air
transport, paper publishing sectors, book fairs, translation, and scientic research sectors, as book fairs
have stopped in all countries of the world [7]. All literary and scientic seminars and meetings, all art
exhibitions, poetry and artistic evenings, and theatrical performances were stopped [8], which caused
great losses to these intellectual and knowledge sectors.
The pandemic has caused a painful blow to the global economy, and although the full extent of the human
and economic impacts of the pandemic will not be clear for months or even years, the losses in these two
areas will be great, exceeding the nancial limits and reaching the knowledge and heritage of humanity as
a whole. The spread of the virus in this regard could lead to political unrest in many countries that suffer
mainly from nancial difculties or those countries that suffer from high levels of unemployment, which
will contribute to the increase in the rates and spread of bureaucratic, dictatorial, and anti-democratic
procedures. The pandemic could also contribute to the occurrence of chaos, clashes, and civil wars in
those countries, and this, in turn, reduces the ability and effectiveness of countries in helping companies
and the private sector at a time when these companies are in dire need of help.
In the short term, some emerging market economies and developing countries (East Asia, the Arab
region, and Africa) will be the most affected economically, taking into consideration the weakness and

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fragility of their health, scientic, intellectual, and educational systems. Whereas, third world countries
and countries that are unable to grow during the rst decade of the twenty-rst century will be the direct
victims of the consequences of the virus on developing and developed countries. Other countries that
depend entirely on trade, tourism, or expatriate remittances from abroad, or depend on exports of raw
materials or the export of valuable materials, or that mainly suffer from difculties in nancial liquidity
will suffer a frightening economic recession with a devastating effect that will take a very long time for
them to recover from the impacts of the virus and the burden of debts. When looking at other countries
that previously suffer from debts owed to the International Monetary Fund, or those countries that have
suffered from wars and conicts (third world countries and the Arab region), we will nd that the effects of
the virus will be deadly so that, it will increase their nancial and economic crises and lead to the nancial
collapse in a way similar to the economic collapse in countries such as Venezuela, and Zimbabwe [55].
As a result of this chaos, and as a result of the state of international economic uctuation, crypto-
currency prices rose in a way that they had not reached for more than 3 years, due to the instability of
the prices of dollar and gold in addition to people’s desire to stabilize their revenues in a way in which
they could preserve their value. The repercussions will have a severe impact on the countries that are
based on the export of oil derivatives, phosphates, gas, and diesel, and the reason for this is the low rates
of consumption, manufacturing, and quarantine cases that are carried out by developed countries. Also,
the cost of extracting, processing, transporting, and storing petroleum materials caused the rise of this
problem to the point in which, the price of a barrel of oil fell below $ 0 per barrel of crude oil. This was
caused by an excess of supply and a signicant drop in demand due to the Corona pandemic, which is the
rst time that a barrel of oil has decreased to this level. If there is a sign of this action, then this means
that the virus is a worrying sign of an unprecedented global energy glut, as the Coronavirus pandemic
has stopped travel and curbed economic activity [54].
Direct Consequences of COVID-19
A third of the world’s population faces some form of movement restriction due to the coronavirus pandemic
[2]. As a result of the continuation of this crisis, many basic questions have surfaced, the most important
of which is: When will life return to normal [29]? Will life return to normal [4]? What kind of economic
repercussions can we expect as a result of this global epidemic[54]? Can we expect a new world order
based on the new reality imposed by the virus [44]?
The spread of the virus caused a decrease in consumer spending around the world, as travel and the
tourism sector in general stopped, and the industry slowed due to restrictions imposed on movement and
restrictions imposed on industrial movement as a whole and Lower consumption has lowered demand
[36]. Unemployment gures in the United States of America and other key indicators indicate that the
impact of the current crisis was more severe than the impact of the global nancial recession in 2008
[10]. Since the imposition of quarantine measures in the United States, about 22 million people have lost
their jobs as a result of these very harsh measures.
Everyone agrees that the impact of the economic impact will be severe and palpable in the short term [34].
However, the most controversial question that economists ask is: What will happen to the global economy
in the medium to long term [19]? Will we go through a recession followed by a sudden rebound once
the virus is contained, as many expect? Or will we see a recovery at a slower pace? will the COVID-19
effect be permanent, which prompts us to adapt to it? if new waves of the virus occur during the coming

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period, specically with the advent of winter, what is the ability of global economies to withstand these
devastating consequences? Will this lead to a global nancial and economic downturn in 2021, which
will lead to a complete halt in demand and in turn lead to international economic collapses, with their
effects surpassing the recessions that occurred in 1908, the recession that followed World War I, and the
nancial collapse of 2008?
When we talk about Corona’s losses, of course, the direct loss relates to the national income of countries
and the loss of travel, airline, and transportation companies, which is a material loss whose value exceeds
billions of dollars and the loss of thousands of their jobs. The long-term impact is the moral, scientic,
and psychological loss of countries that have suffered from the spread of the virus. Imagine the total
amount of time that humanity has paid during the past months? Imagine the millions of years in total
hundreds of millions of people spent in their homes during quarantine periods? How much is the total loss
of humanity during these days? The present seems mysterious to many people, students and researchers.
COVID-19 Impact on Higher Education
The Coronavirus crisis and the resulting closures affected almost every sector of the global economy, and
these crises have caused some sectors to turn upside down. Perhaps one of the most directly affected by
this process is the higher education sector. The outbreak of the Coronavirus epidemic has led to a major
educational crisis due to the closure of schools and universities around the world and the disruption of
formal education services, as more than 290 million students around the world have been directly affected
[5]. Many countries have decided to close schools, colleges, universities, and all educational institutions
to reduce affection rates. Here, the basic dilemma arises in the need for governments to choose between
two options: either closing educational institutions, preserving lives, and limiting direct contact, or
keeping them open to mitigate the devastating economic, scientic and cognitive effects resulting from
their closure. It is not easy for all members and stakeholders in educational institutions to make such a
decision or even transfer education to the distance education system, as it is not easy for families and
students to accept that the educational process takes place entirely from home, so it is very difcult for
parents and students to accept this direct transfer in the method of delivery for the education system [40].
This transformation caused a shock to the social life of children and their families. The most severe of
all is the system of general examinations and the student evaluation system at the end of each semester.
Will these assessments be reliable? Will it be an acceptable alternative to the traditional system? will it be
a bad choice, totally unacceptable? Even more importantly, will the degree of the student who studied a
complete educational program online considered acceptable? As for the labor market, will employers treat
both graduates (the rst graduated from an in-person program and the second from an online program)
the same treatment? Due to the situation of uncertainty, we nd that the questions asked to go far beyond
the answers that can be provided to these questions, among them, will the student accept paying $ 73,000
to study the MBA program in the distance education system which is the same cost for the in-person
program cost? Students believe that just as an e-book is about four times cheaper than a paper book, the
same applies to distance education, as it should be less expensive than in-person education [33].
The most urgent question in this regard is, in the event that the prestigious universities switch to the
distance education system, will they still have the distinction they had before? What will distinguish
these universities when they implement the distance education system from other universities around the
world? Will the ranking standards for universities around the world still carry the same previous standards

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in the event that universities switch to distance education? In the coming years, we may witness a radical
change in the structure and systems of higher education institutions around the world.
Coronavirus also caused unprecedented shocks in the higher education system, and more clearly, not
all students, not even universities, teaching and administrative bodies, were able to change and move
to this completely new system, and the students’ societies did not accept this change too. It is hard to
request from physics professors to prepare lectures and equations using the Zoom program because
this method is completely brand new to them. It is also difcult for all students to accept this shift in
which, they are requested to attend a full program of study, lectures, and register attendance while they
are in front of a laptop or mobile screen. This topic needs studies in behavioral psychology and restrict
student distraction as much as possible. An example of this is what will the student do during a physics
lecture that he attends on the Zoom program on his mobile device if his girlfriend sends him a message?
What will the professor presenting this lecture do in the event of a technical error on the laptop or in the
communication program? These problems are an integral part of a complex behavioral and social system
that all parties to the educational process must be prepared to accept and understand.
All members and stakeholders of the educational process must be informed that we are facing an
international dilemma and a catastrophic epidemic, and we must all try to participate in accepting
intermediate solutions to overcome these difculties. In this regard, we are not proposing that what is
happening is not problematic, or that dealing with this new system is very simple, as this educational
system represents a new challenge for all parties. We are almost certain that educational institutions are
not at all happy with this new educational system. What calms us is that we cannot do anything to change
this new reality. Universities must encourage and support the teaching staff to overcome the psychological,
emotional, and physical difculties of the virus among students [26]because for those students, the future
is vague, unclear, ominous, and uncertain, and there are no good predictions at all, as these students will
enter the labor market that has been almost halted and stopped mainly due to the virus.
Academic Impact of COVID-19
Perhaps the direct nancial impact of the losses of universities is represented in the potential income losses
of foreign students who returned to their homelands after the brute application of the distance education
system, and they were able to continue studying from their countries as these students provided a large
and increasing share of the total income due to the high fees they pay and the increase in their numbers
during the previous years. In addition, the revenues of these students help universities to nance research
and studies conducted by the university. Taking into account this new reality, these universities will not
be able to provide the required money that contributes to nancing researches. In Britain, for example,
there are more than 13 universities at risk of bankruptcy without the possibility of supporting them [9].
In addition, with the application of this new educational system, higher education institutions must
provide an additional educational and scientic value that distinguishes them from other universities,
and this will lead to new and severe pressures on higher education institutions that mainly suffer from the
nancial difculties resulting from the virus. The new reality has also caused a difcult and suffocating
negative impact on universities and educational institutions. It is well known that universities rent a
number of buildings, playgrounds, swimming pools, public services centers, and car park subscriptions
allowance for their students and faculty staff, and these leased properties are considered a major tributary
of the tributaries that educational institutions depend on to cover their expenses. This led to educational

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institutions incurring astronomical sums that were paid in advance and were not utilized at all, which
caused the scal decit, in addition to the nancial decit caused by students’ reluctance to register at
the university due to the blurry conditions caused by the epidemic.
It is also important to note that the consequences of coronavirus were not limited to losing nancial returns
from previously rented properties. In addition, it can be noted that the old and ancient universities need
to conduct periodic maintenance for their buildings, such as colleges, institutes, and research centers
[31][28]. This may seem at no cost to new universities, and those universities and HEIs established after
1975 but it might have a very large impact for universities built before 1800 such as Harvard, Oxford,
and Yale in particular, and this is clearly evident in the Ivy League universities Which includes (Brown
University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dorsmith College, Harvard University, University
of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University) [53].
In addition, one of the most prominent changes that universities will face is the decline in scal revenues,
which must act dynamically to avoid its negative effects. To clarify more, it should be noted that the number
of international students in some universities exceeds 30% of the total number of students. Accordingly,
what will happen to these universities when these international students return to their home countries?
Certainly, this will lead to the collapse of universities’ revenues and change their future plans. This will
also force universities to reduce expenses, dispense with the contracts of some of its contractors, and
increase registration fees for its students to cover the nancial decit. All of those factors will worsen
the situation and will contribute only to the acceleration of the collapse. Suspension of the registration
of international students will not only have an impact on universities alone, but will also have an impact
on the sums of hard currencies that these students pay to the state treasury for housing, transportation,
restaurants, hotels, swimming pools, and canteens, and all the nancial costs they pay for the services
they receive, which in turn, will contribute in supplying the state treasury with large sums of money.
In 2017, the amount that international students pump into the British economy was estimated at around 25
billion pounds [23]. In normal cases, universities can take advantage of internal loans from the government,
but taking into account the internal nancial collapse in many countries as a result of repeated closures
and stoppages of industry, commerce, and tourism, this will lead us to believe that higher education
institutions (and these universities) will be the biggest loser in these difcult circumstances. Higher
education cannot be portrayed as a luxury that can be dispensed with. Education is our weapon to defeat
Coronavirus, and if we stop education, how will we be able to confront the epidemic?
High-income private universities are expected to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in the next scal
year, including Johns Hopkins University in The USA. As for the British universities, they will collectively
face a signicant nancial decline, estimated at least $ 3 billion, next year due to an expected decrease in
the number of students enrolled in universities, according to the British Institute for Economic Consulting
in London [37]. As for Australia, its universities will lose nearly 21,000 jobs, including 7,000 jobs in
the eld of scientic research in universities [49]. The most frightening possibility for universities that
cannot nd a resource to cover their nancial decit is the complete closure of these universities, while
other universities will be more fortunate if they can be merged with other universities [35]. How do we
envision the state of merging universities with each other and what are the legal consequences of these
new universities? These new universities will have to start from scratch in terms of their programs,
management, and quality systems. Taking all the previous criteria into account, and with regard to the
nancial side of higher education institutions, Coronavirus can be viewed as a black hole that absorbs

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hundreds of millions of dollars from the budget of higher education institutions and its existential impact
might reach the university legal status, its existence, and personal operation. Decit reaches 2.6 billion
£ in Britain for the academic year 2020-2021 [48].
Online Teaching: e Best Available Option
Many studies have elaborated on and claried this point, and therefore we will not talk about it in
detail. Distance learning is one of the sectors that has ourished during the past years, specically in the
early 2010s, as many universities and well-established educational institutions have begun to provide
their educational programs through the distance study mode, as well as many quality assurance bodies,
specialized in the accreditation of distance learning programs and even, Traditional quality assurance
institutions have recognized these programs that were delivered via online mode. What is important in this
regard is that the educational programs that were taught in these institutions were theoretical educational
programs that do not require in-person interaction with the lecturer, nor do they require any practical
practice such as languages, management, business administration, literature, and journalism while the
implementation of this educational system seems impossible in the study of medicine, scientic faculties,
mathematics, physics, and similar educational elds. Ludger Wößmann, a German professor of economics
at the University of Munich and director of the Ifo Center for Economic Research (Leibniz Institute for
Economic Research at the University of Munich), declared that online education was not a good alternative
to traditional education. He added saying that It is necessary we do everything applicable to return to
traditional education as soon as possible while taking the necessary preventive measures, and if this is
not possible, a complete schedule for online education must be established [32]. Even when we talk about
distance education, it does not seem completely fair to all countries of the world. On the one hand, and
when looking at the countries of the developed world, we nd that more than 95% of their regions are
equipped with the Internet and fast connection while it seems tragic in other regions and countries such
as India, where about 70% of Indians living in rural areas still do not have access to digital technology
[24], which makes the return of traditional education a critical issue in these areas, according to him.
With the similar mechanism and methodology of education in all universities by dealing with specic
programs for teaching such as Zoom, Skype, and programs for each university, it seems that the
differences between universities are diminishing and there is no longer that big difference between small
universities and those advanced universities or universities with high ranking and those with a lower
ranking. Universities have also begun to encourage the transition to this new educational system and direct
communication with students through Telegram and WhatsApp groups and to encourage the teaching
staff to share all educational resources books, and educational notes with students. Experts believe that
the impact of the current COVID-19 during the years 2020 and 2021 will change the structure of higher
education at the international level, and that education will be different in quantity and quality during
the coming years [3].
COVID-19 Impact on Labour Market for HEIs
The controversial issue of the impact of COVID-19 on the labor market sector appears for graduates
of universities and higher education institutions. The direct problem in this case for practical college
students is that these students were unable to follow the practical application of theoretical skills in the

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best possible way, and the economic impact that hit the economies of developing countries caused the
suspension of tens of thousands of jobs and professions in addition to the suspension of trade and large
companies. Regarding working online, or using the internet as a medium for work, we nd that the gigantic
companies (especially technology companies) monopolize most of the work and jobs, which will increase
the difculties and burdens placed on governments and countries. It is also known that ve American
technology companies (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Uber) have liquidity exceeding $
504 billion, which amounts to 30% of US liquidity [6]. It is possible to transfer some works and convert
its work system to include work via the Internet, but this matter does not include all works and all jobs.
The direct dilemma at this point is that students in the current period are thinking about studying
educational programs that do not include the direct application of practical skills, which will lead to
universities focusing on some departments and neglecting other educational departments and programs.
Some can suggest that the COVID-19 epidemic could end within a short period after several countries
have offered several treatments. The main problem is humanity’s exposure to other epidemics similar to
the COVID-19 epidemic in its work and its deadly impact on humanity and at that, we will have to wait
for many years before obtaining the necessary drug For the treatment of those epidemics.
COVID-19 Impact on Ensuring Quality Assurance, Accreditation and
Certification of HEIs
Implementing quality assurance in the light of the presence of COVID-19 appears to be a relatively
controversial issue, as it seems difcult to apply all academic standards, whether when applying
programmatic or institutional accreditation to the educational institution taking into account the restrictions
and barriers for the educational institution. It is also difcult for the higher educational institution, if not
to say impossible, to apply all the standards regulating quality taking into account the new conditions of
the epidemic, its spread, and its impact, whether on the educational institution, on students, or even on
graduates. Thus, the quality assurance bodies nd themselves facing a major dilemma in ensuring the
safety of the standards of the educational institution without the ability to make a site visit to the institution
[42]. We know for sure that the accreditation process can be conducted remotely without the necessity or
the need to carry out the site-visit, but this matter does not apply to all quality assurance institutions as
some of them require the visit as a basic condition for the accreditation process. Quality Assurance bodies
nd themselves faced with two options: either to extend accreditation to universities whose accreditation
is about to expire, and in this case, the extension can be for a year or even two years depending on the
extent of the virus’s spread, its impact, its ability to develop itself and the human ability to deal with
it, or to implement the accreditation process completely remotely, with the requirement of a site-visit
to the educational institution in the event of an improvement in the health situation. Quality assurance
institutions can grant conditional accreditation as an acceptable option during this difcult period.
Dark prospects and Bleak Future: Mutation of COVID-19 and the Emergence of
Other Viruses
Perhaps the most controversial posibility is the fear of new epidemics emerging in the coming years so that
the current decade of the twenty-rst century will be the decade of biological warfare between humanity
on one side, and diseases on the other side. COVID-19 appears as the rst example of this pessimistic

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state of humanity’s ability to withstand the face of these wars and deal with them. The nightmare that
we have to think about for the moment is the mutation of COVID-19 into a new virus different in its
impact and effects from COVID-19. In this regard, it seems difcult to predict the future of mankind and
the future of work, cultural, intellectual, and cognitive activities, in addition to the difculties related to
safety and security, and the possibilities available to preserve humanity’s immunity and develop scientic
studies to cope with the resulting difculties. It also seems difcult for universities and higher education
institutions to operate, bearing in mind the difculties that could result from this pessimistic situation
that causes frustration, anxiety, and fear. This also appears to be the case for quality assurance agencies.
In this regard, quality assurance agencies must work to develop new, specic, and strict standards that
ensure the safety of the educational process and that it meets the required standards. Humanity must
prepare itself for any new virus, and doctors and scientists must prepare themselves for any event that
may occur in the coming years.
Suggestions and Recommendations
1. Establishing Higher Education Emergency Response Network HEERN specialized in higher
education at an international level related to providing recommendations and advice to universities
and higher education institutions so that this network would have a direct role in taking the right
and appropriate steps at the right time so that the losses resulting from the delay in decision-making
are avoided.
2. International quality agencies are advised to provide a package of updates related to dealing with
emergency management and dealing with ensuring the quality of education in universities by
developing their educational standards and systems.
3. Quality assurance agencies are advised to prepare initial and temporary work plans to deal with
university accreditation, either by extending the institutional accreditation of higher education
institutions and suspending programmatic accreditation or by building a new system for
programmatic accreditation that ensures that universities and higher education institutions apply
all standards regulating accreditation.
4. Medical colleges in universities are advised tothink of conducting focused and intensive research
on immunity, prevention, the structure of viruses, and the way they mutate and evolve.
5. Despite the difcult conditions that all countries of the world suffer from, governments must
provide nancial grants and pour money into universities for the purpose of conducting applied
research on viruses and their mechanism. Regarding nancing, we recommend that the International
Monetary Fund IMF should provide nancial grants to universities for the purpose of conducting
studies and research focused on strengthening personal immunity.
6. Universities and higher education institutions should provide a exible mechanism to teach their
practical and theoretical curricula. In this regard, colleges can teach all theoretical programs through
the distance education system. Regarding practical programs, HEIs can teach those programs
following the in-person mode in the form of very small groups of 4-6 students taking the utmost
safety and security and applying all prevention and triage protocols.
7. Universities must automate all educational institution resources, all documents, and supporting
documents, keep backup copies of these documents and papers, and keep backup copies of these

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backup copies and save them in different places. These automated resources can contribute to
facilitating the accreditation of an institution’s educational programs.
8. Faculties of Technology and Informatics in universities must design specialized programs to connect
students with teachers and to automatically save lectures either through special Google Drive links
or by direct uploading to the university’s specialized channels on the Internet or on YouTube.
9. Universities must focus on information security and protecting their databases in these difcult
circumstances.
10. Universities should focus on behavioral psychology to facilitate and clarify the transition to
the new teaching methodology and facilitate this task for students and university faculty and
administrative staff.
11. Universities must upload all practical skills on the Internet and send special xed links to students
that can be accessed 24/7.
12. We recommend employers to deal with university graduates during the past year with transparency
and without discrimination because the virus has affected everyone.
13. We recommend that international NGOs support international research centers for the purpose of
studying the promotion of prevention and personal protection methods.
CONCLUSION
Humanity can stand up to this virus and overcome it, just as it has overcome previous viruses during
the past decades, and we, as researchers and specialists in the higher education sector, must contribute
to spreading and increasing awareness to provide the best practices that can contribute to protecting the
higher education sector in these difcult days.
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