What will the future of the academy look like? It’s a big question with infinite answers. The latest issue of Academic Matters, published in Summer 2022, focused on the long arc of the COVID-19 pandemic and what it means for teaching, learning, and research. This issue was also the last for outgoing editor-in-chief Ben Lewis. Thank you for all your work, Ben!
Editorial Matters: Pandemic Learning
By Ben Lewis, Editor-in-Chief
“The legacy of the past two years will play out for decades and the consequences will be felt disparately in different communities—potentially marking a paradigm shift in postsecondary education…”
Glimpsing the future, thanks to a pandemic
By Ken Steele
“If the pandemic has a silver lining (however thin), it is that the unequal circumstances and invisible challenges faced by many of our colleagues and students—both before and during the pandemic—have become strikingly evident…”
Let’s normalize kindness in post-pandemic learning
By Yvonne Su, York University
“In the post-pandemic university, it is more important than ever for us to be kind and build a culture of care. This culture is vital—for students and educators—as the pre-pandemic levels of stress and burnout in both populations cannot be tolerated…”
Blank stares and black screens: The pitfalls of virtual learning and the challenges of post-pandemic education
By Ari Gandsman, University of Ottawa
“We cannot forget that this has all been a grand social experiment. None of this would have been possible a decade ago, when broadband internet and videoconferencing platforms were far less accessible. While we bemoan the effects of technology on our lives, we have now allowed it to hijack our education systems…”
The future of internationalization in the wake of COVID
By Elizabeth Buckner, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
“Our postsecondary institutions do an impressive job creating ways for people from around the world to communicate with each other, whether on physical campuses or in virtual spaces. However, fostering deep and meaningful human connections among these individuals, who have different backgrounds and worldviews, is a much more difficult challenge…”
Inside the mental health crisis facing college and university students
By Simon Lewsen with photography by Chloë Ellingson
“Over the last decade, reports of postsecondary students trying and failing to secure psychological services have become ubiquitous. Pundits and psychiatrists now talk about a mental health crisis on campus, and it isn’t hard to see why…”