Higher education and COVID-19 pandemic: Case study of the Sustainable Integrated Rural Development in Africa (SIRDA) programme

Abstract

The need to document how the Sustainable Integrated Rural Development in Africa (SIRDA) programme has been differently or similarly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic when it is compared with most conventional higher educational programmes informed this study on higher education and COVID-19 pandemic: case study of the SIRDA programme. The study was carried out in two West Africa Universities namely, the University of Ibadan and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Data was collected from 56 SIRDA students using structured questionnaires which were administered online using google forms. The 56 SIRDA students were selected using a census sampling technique. Data was analysed using percentages. Respondents (83.3%) were mostly male and 50.0% of them heard of the programme from friends/relatives. Goal 17 of the SDGs reflected the most in SIRDA-taught courses and learning involving mainly course work, research projects, and seminars/conferences. Knowledge delivery for the SIRDA programme was modified to accommodate virtual methods (83.3%) during the COVID-19 crisis, while some essential components such as field practicum could not be implemented. Students were generally poorly involved in the Education for Sustainable Development (ESDA) governance issues and were mostly uncertain (66.7%) of what would be the long-run effect of COVID-19 on the SIRDA programme. The study concluded that COVID-19 caused major disruptions to SIRDA programme, especially in implementing some components such as fieldwork. It is recommended that SIRDA curriculum review process should focus attention amongst others, on developing a flexible curriculum that can be taught in person or online and that can switch between face-to-face and remote learning.