Abrupt switches to online learning without face-to-face contact between facilitators and students can cause distress and have a negative impact on student success. As students use instant messaging applications (IMAs) to communicate with one another, we have integrated WhatsApp-based mobile learning environments (MLEs) in two disparate higher…

The global outburst of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic according to Burgess and Sievertsen (2020) impeded activities within the confines of many organisations and institutions around the world, thereby making it difficult to manage their traditional programmes. In a bid to keep the academic year open, and considering the unpredictable length…

This article explores student perceptions of writing online examinations for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, examinations at an open and distance learning institution in South Africa were conducted as venue-based examinations. From March 2020, all examinations were moved online. Online examinations were…

The COVID-19 pandemic had, and still has, an influence on everybody's well-being, including that of music teachers. The search for meaning in life and purpose for music teachers became even more compelling throughout this trying time. This interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) explores the multiple meanings that five self-employed music…

The COVID-19 pandemic catapulted higher education institutions to shifting their teaching, learning and assessment practices. Universities globally were abruptly forced to close their doors and adapt to digital learning platforms with the intention of meeting students' learning needs. In a University of Technology (UoT) context such as the Durban…

The lockdown the South African government implemented in 2020 to contain the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in school closures. During this time, and also when learners were allowed to attend school again, the focus was on the physical health and safety of the learners. However, in the process, schools might have neglected the psycho-social and mental…

This case study presents a critical reflection on the way COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020-2022 brought the festival industry in South Africa closer to higher education (HE) via a new and innovative collaboration. The research design allowed an international team to facilitate knowledge sharing and research support during a very challenging time for the…

The trends in higher education's post-pandemic recovery and towards sustainability are not new concepts and are still being discussed in various contexts. Evidence shows that higher education suffered greatly from the pandemic due to closures of institutions. Hence, more post-pandemic studies are necessary to understand its effects and how…

The lack of women in leadership across higher education has been problematised in the literature. Often, contemporary discourses promote "fixing the women" as a solution. Consequently, interventions aimed at helping women break through "the glass ceiling" abound. We argue that the gendered power relations at play in…

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions to the teaching, learning and research functions of universities around the globe. It has also impacted their internationalisation efforts in significant ways. From the perspective of South Africa's public higher education sector, this article reflects on how international students at the…

For a UK based university faculty that delivers a bespoke Work Based suite of under and postgraduate programmes to a major South African client, the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) agenda is important (Wall, 2013, 2017; Ferrández-Berrueco, Kekale, and Devins, 2016). Pre pandemic, EDI was about access to professionally relevant education…

This article argues that despite students facing obstacles when studying remotely and online through the COVID-19 pandemic, some are able to overcome barriers to achieve their academic goals. While formal methods are used to evaluate teaching and learning, the five teacher educator researchers in this study sought to understand pre-service…

Since 2020, there has been a flurry of research on the impact of COVID-19 on families, and some research on the effects of the pandemic on academic parents. However, little is known about how the pandemic reshaped academic women's family lives and how this influenced their teaching, research, and inner selves. This innovative study of South…

This paper aims to demonstrate how a South African secondary school responded to the negative impact of COVID-19 and still ensures quality education. This paper's final objective is to link this experience to the theme of this book focusing on the next epoch of education. The paper commences with an orientation and autobiographical reflection on…

The research on students' sense of belonging in higher education has evolved into a prominent theme worldwide. Institutional research focuses on the institution understanding itself and helps leaders to rethink improvement initiatives. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has required of institutions to revise student support programmes and approaches…