A higher education rid of our rich engagements: reflecting on student engagement during COVID-19

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has created chaos for student engagement in higher education (HE). The majority of University systems worldwide were forced to move to online learning, drastically restrict face to face activities, and limit student interactions on campus and across countries as part of government activities to stop transmission. A virus that spread through social interactions automatically limited our HE provision which has traditionally relied upon such student-student, and student-staff engagement, bringing people together from across nations and the wider world to campuses of learning, discussion, activity and socialising. Situated within this context, this paper explores the shift away from the common student experience of travelling to the location of study and the effect this has had on many of the student engagement opportunities that occur in our locations of learning. These student engagements are what this paper will term the “rich engagements” of higher education, to which this paper will explore.