COVID-19: Remapping the Way: Optimizing High Education while Decreasing Exposure and Viral Transmission

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has promptly led to the lockdown of high education institutions including different universities around the world, hoping that the recommendations of global health ministries and organizations, primarily social distancing, could help in decreasing viral transmission, flattening contagion curve and reducing expected death rates. Drawing on the situation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and analyzing the different declarations of emergent precautionary procedures at Saudi universities, this paper argues that in addition to being globally framed as a health intimidation, COVID-19 can also be presented as a new normal through which high education policy reinvented itself. The paper also argues that digitalization and distance learning proves to be a crucial tool for different universities around the world not only for continuing education as a potential emergency solution within the worst scenarios under the intimidation of the pandemic, but also for advocating a prospective renovation after the COVID-19 crisis passes through genuine online and blended education.