Safety And Resilience Of Higher Educational Institutions

The world has spent the majority of 2020 enduring an unpreceded crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of this crisis has been enormous, and the situation has yet to be resolved. It is still difficult to anticipate when the pandemic will end and how our lives will have changed after the crisis. Higher educational institutions (HEIs) have also had to undergo tremendous transformation, in particular, changing a conventional educational, teaching, and learning system to a digital and online mode and cancelling or postponing important events such as graduation and entrance ceremonies and entrance examinations. In addition, a number of HEIs have been facing financial constraints due to reduced enrolment, particularly from overseas. Students have missed opportunities to meet their family and friends, causing profound psychosocial impact and stress for all concerned. Simultaneously, however, the situation has given HEIs a good opportunity to consider their disaster preparedness, response, and recovery capacity on campus. Some surveys have highlighted a lack of preparedness for pandemic and other hazardous risks beyond natural hazards. Safety issues are a top priority at HEIs because they bring together a number of students, faculty, and staff. This book covers the experiences and lessons learned from HEIs in preparedness, response, and recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic to prepare for such calamities beyond natural disasters in the future. The book consists of 15 chapters divided into three major sections. They highlight the importance of HEIs’ governance issues in disaster risk management, examine the challenges that HEIs have faced during the pandemic and the implementation of new teaching and learning methodologies, and provide innovative responses and preparedness by HEIs based on science and technology, respectively.

Vulnerability and resilience are concepts that have long been treated as individual and contradicting topics. In recent times, we have seen that vulnerabilities and resilience can go hand in hand and that vulnerabilities cannot be conceptualized only in simple terms because intersectionality must be considered as well as social, organizational, and systemic aspects and processes. One example is that women are more vulnerable (higher values in nearly all stress related measures) in the COVID-19 pandemic. This finding has to be analyzed from an intersectional perspective, because socio-economic factors, cultural factors, exposure to COVID-19 and the type of occupation (e.g. healthcare sector, frontline workers) play an important role in how vulnerable or resilient women can be in a given society. The large number of studies on COVID-19 vulnerabilities makes it necessary to take a closer look at the resilience factors that often go hand in hand with potential vulnerabilities. As we see in the literature about pandemics in general and COVID-19, there are some individual, organizational and systemic vulnerabilities that can be found in all pandemics. From that we can assume that there will be resilience factors within the same concepts that may buffer vulnerabilities.

This book proposes a new theory of change in American higher education that explains the resilience of colleges and universities, and demonstrates how they adapt to new social and economic conditions. It argues that the demands for new educational missions, new sources of capital to finance innovation, and new organizational and governance models lead to the creation of institutional diversity. Using the theory of “accretive change” to predict future changes, this volume asserts that the rise of artificial intelligence and new investment models within the field of social entrepreneurship will shape the next wave of universities and educational institutions.

This book critically examines the role of governments in promoting parity during and in post-pandemic education. This comes from the realisation that the pandemic has deepened the crisis by depleting the meagre resources that African countries might have devoted to ‘normative educational practices’ where those on the margins would have been pushed further behind while the privileged would have been further initiated into the cultural and capital flows of private schools and historically research-intensive institutions of higher learning. This has far-reaching implications for the education of underprivileged citizens, and education, particularly modes and modalities of delivery, has to be reimagined to subvert the challenges wrought by the pandemic. This book significantly bridges the gap between the pre-and post-COVID-19 pandemic pedagogical practices and the erstwhile modalities that have been resilient over time. The book focuses on ways to stave off pedagogical challenges that face countries as the global pandemic makes its mark.

Disasters undermine societal well-being, causing loss of lives and damage to social and economic infrastructures. Disaster resilience is central to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, especially in regions where extreme inequality combines with the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters. Disaster risk reduction and resilience requires participation of wide array of stakeholders ranging from academicians to policy makers to disaster managers. Disaster Resilient Cities: Adaptation for Sustainable Development offers evidence-based, problem-solving techniques from social, natural, engineering and other disciplinary perspectives. It connects data, research, conceptual work with practical cases on disaster risk management, capturing the multi-sectoral aspects of disaster resilience, adaptation strategy and sustainability. The book links disaster risk management with sustainable development under a common umbrella, showing that effective disaster resilience strategies and practices lead to achieving broader sustainable development goals. Provides foundational knowledge on integrated disaster risk reduction and management to show how resilience and its associated concept such as adaptive and transformative strategies can foster sustainable development Brings together disaster risk reduction and resilience scientists, policy-makers and practitioners from different disciplines Case studies on disaster risk management from natural science, social science, engineering and other relevant disciplinary perspectives

Education is regarded as a cross-cutting issue for disaster risk reduction (DRR) through reviewing the Sendai Framework for DRR (SFDRR) 2015–2030. Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in the education sector is one of the important efforts to enhance resilience in a community. DRR in the education sector not only focuses on provision of disaster education, but also includes securing a safe school environment, developing school disaster management plans, and building the capacity of school teachers and local educational officers. Japan, with its wealth of experience in DRR, has developed a good resilient system in its education sector, which has been tested and revised through experiences of past disasters. This book reviews the evolution of DRR in the education sector in Japan, including some of the recent developments after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, focusing on DRR governance and practices in national policies, curriculum development and teacher training, community linkage, and international cooperation, to enhance resilience in the education sector. The primary target groups for this book are students and researchers in the fields of disaster management and DRR studies. Another target group comprises practitioners and policy makers, who will be able to apply the collective knowledge from this work to policy and decision making. The book provides an overview of the current research trends and furnishes basic knowledge on this important topic.

In the ever-evolving environment of higher education, where institutions are motivated by the pursuit of excellence and global recognition, the HE Higher Education Ranking stands as a transforming force. This book, "Introduction to HE Higher Education Ranking: Methodology, Criteria, and Indicators," beckons readers into a profound exploration of this innovative ranking system, offering a comprehensive understanding of its origins, methodologies, and the complex relationships that shape its significance in the field of global academia. Our voyage begins by diving into the historical fabric of higher education rankings, tracking the growth of these assessments as they have come to play a vital role in creating institutional identities. Against this context, the HE Higher Education Ranking emerges as a modern answer, a product of painstaking planning and a realization of the growing demands within the academic scene. Established in 2022, the debut edition, presented in April 2023, constituted a watershed moment—an expression of the ranking's dedication to providing a novel, complete view of the institutional position. The story unfolds beyond the mere presentation of numerical placements. This book serves as a guide, introducing varied readers—academics, institutional leaders, students, and enthusiasts—to the sophisticated mechanisms that govern the HE Higher Education Ranking. As we go across its techniques, criteria, and indicators, the goal is to transcend the surface-level comprehension of rankings, unraveling the layers that contribute to a complete assessment of academic institutions on a global basis. The HE Higher Education Ranking, with its genesis in the recent past, represents a commitment to responding to the difficulties of modern higher education. It recognizes that excellence is multi-faceted, reaching beyond established measurements. This appreciation is integrated into the very fabric of the ranking, molding its criteria to encompass the many contributions that institutions contribute to the educational scene. The book contextualizes this philosophy, outlining the motivations and concepts that inspire the HE Higher Education Ranking in its objective to present a more comprehensive assessment of academic institutions. As we move forward through the parts, the narrative evolves to confront basic problems that go beyond the numerical rankings. Why should there be a thorough and holistic approach to rankings? What is the significance of universities in participating in such assessments? Why precisely 25 criteria, and how manageable are the 138 indications that form this grading system? These questions lead us to study not just the "what" but also the "why" and "how" of the HE Higher Education Ranking, diving into the complexities that define its purpose and scope. The book strives to offer a comprehensive picture, addressing issues, investigating rationales, and engaging with the numerous facets of the HE Higher Education Ranking. It is not only a static documentation of rankings but an active inquiry, an invitation to comprehend, analyze, and participate in the ongoing conversation about the future of higher education assessment. Through this investigation, we uncover the importance of rankings in shaping institutional behavior, decision-making processes, and the future trends that will alter the landscape of academic evaluations. In simple terms, "Introduction to HE Higher Education Ranking" is an intellectual expedition—a journey into the heart of educational assessment. It is an investigation of the ranking's position as a transformative force, impacting the discourse on the future of higher education in an interconnected global arena. As we immerse ourselves in the pages that follow, we expose the layers that make the HE Higher Education Ranking an invaluable compass, guiding institutions, educators, and stakeholders toward greatness in the evolving world of academia.