Universities management of crisis: an analysis of Covid-19 pandemic

• Main Author: Aminudin, Rabi'ah
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: H10 Societies; JA Political science (General)
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/86977/1/86977_Universities%20Management%20of%20Crisis_new.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/86977/
• Institution: Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia

In December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was alerted with the report on viral pneumonia reported in Wuhan,China. Early January 2020, the Chinese government made an announcement that the viral pneumonia phenomenon reported was caused by a novel coronavirus. The virus has spread globally and has led to more than 63 million cases and almost 2 million deaths around the world. As there is no vaccine to the virus, governments around the world resorted to different approaches in managing the pandemic including border closure and restricting public movements. This affected higher learning institutions especially in their conducts of teaching and learning, research activities, and also the movement of international students and staff as campus are forced to close, learning and teaching activities were halted, and tight border control has resulted in students and staff stranded outside of the country. However, HEI are not prepared to face large scale of crisis as presented by COVID 19 pandemic especially due to constant changes in government policies that affected the operation of HEI. This has presented HEI with pressure to adapt and reform its practices especially regarding the teaching and learning, research activities as well as its business model as HEI has evolved over the decades to emulate private sectors with education as a business commodity, rather than being treated as public goods and services. Apart from public health crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic, universities are also facing looming financial crisis as a result of COVID-19 due to inadequate preparation of universities management in handling COVID-19. Thus, it is important for HEI as organisations to have comprehensive and feasible crisis management plan