The capability approach has recently been recognised as a potential explanatory theory in disability research. However, to strengthen its explanatory power, it is argued that it should be grounded in a critical realist research paradigm. While critical realism is increasingly adopted in social inquiry, to date there remains little research that…

This study aimed to evaluate the crisis management plans in Saudi Arabian universities by identifying key challenges and obstacles. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 473 faculty members. The participants completed a survey that included the university campus's existing crisis management plans, educational leaders' challenges in…

South African research ethics committees (RECs) faced significant challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research ethics committees needed to find a balance between careful consideration of scientific validity and ethical merit of protocols, and review with the urgency normally associated with public health emergency research. We aimed to…

Despite the growing body of literature on the structural problems of emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, far too little empirical research has been conducted on university academics' challenges in online pedagogy and what is needed to facilitate their teaching during a time of educational crisis. Thus, this study selects a…

The relationship between adolescents' use of video games and their well-being is controversial and largely unexplored during the COVID -19 pandemic. This study examined the association between adolescent video game use and well-being during a nationwide lockdown (March-May 2020) and investigated whether this association was mediated by emotional…

Higher education in Palestine, as in other countries, suddenly found itself in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was in March 2020 that the government declared the state of emergency and ordered educational institutions on lockdown, replacing oncampus teaching with online teaching. Within almost two weeks, all universities started teaching…

British education has faced an upheaval during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic, schools often went beyond traditional interpretations of what was needed for educational provision. This article explores how those interpretations have been challenged by the response to COVID-19. It discusses the various ways in which, during the crisis,…

The Corona pandemic caused 'disruption' in the world of higher education and required a transition to emergency remote teaching (ERT). Lecturers and students experienced disruption in the familiar processes of teaching and learning. Yet, about a year after the outbreak of the pandemic, a routine of remote teaching was reached. The study examines…

The lasting effects of COVID-19 on education are not yet fully understood. However, many studies have reported on how educationalists and students have responded to the transition from the traditional classrooms to an emergency remote learning and teaching. Prominent researchers in the field strongly argue that teachers' contexts exert a critical…

The COVID-19 pandemic placed increasing pressure on university staff with spiralling workloads due to the rapid implementation of changes to university processes and staff being required to take on additional duties due to self-isolating or unwell colleagues. The mental health of students was also adversely affected due to changes in their…

The main objective of the present research was to explore students' experiences of emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we were interested in how strategies for coping with an emergency situation, learning strategies and positivity relate to this experience. A total of 337 university students participated in the…

The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated an unprecedented and mandatory shift from face-to-face to online education. This has occurred in numerous contexts worldwide, including language education. Little research, however, has investigated language education under such conditions of emergency remote teaching (ERT). This article focuses on the…

Purpose: Due to the emergent COVID situation, the teachers of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences- Al- Musanna, Oman (UTASA) had to abruptly switch over to online teaching platforms like Microsoft Teams. They encountered unexpected challenges. This research study aimed to survey the opinions of ELT teachers in UTASA to cope up with…

The paper revisits the outbreak of COVID-19 in Italy and particularly in Lombardy region, the first and initially most severely affected area among western countries. First, we provide an overview of the impact of the pandemic in the country and in the region, mentioning the turning points and the main effects on the national and local economy.…

In this contribution to the Special Issue of Studies in Higher Education, I describe developments during the COVID-19 pandemic in Dutch higher education along three lines. First, the context is outlined in chronological order. It concerns the evolution of the pandemic in the Netherlands, complemented by the general situation at my own university…