La revista Nature dedica a las universidades la primera entrega de una serie de ocho artículos, con el título Universities will never be the same after the coronavirus crisis.
“All institutions are facing major financial problems, however. Wealthy private US universities, such as Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, expect to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in the next fiscal year. UK universities collectively face a shortfall of at least £2.5 billion (US$3 billion) in the next year because of projected drops in student enrolment, according to the UK consulting firm London Economics. And Australian universities could shed up to 21,000 full-time jobs this year, including 7,000 in research, a government report said in May.”
“Even after the immediate financial crisis passes, the economic outlook could remain bleak. Some researchers say that this might drive universities and funding agencies to focus on research projects and infrastructure that are most relevant to national interests in a post-pandemic world. For instance, the UK government is setting up a research sustainability task force that aims to assess research projects across universities with an eye for planning for the country’s long-term future.”
“And the pandemic might help universities push back against the notion that they are elitist and irrelevant to society, a view that populist parties have advanced in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and elsewhere. Universities in many countries, for example, have led the hunt for ways to treat or prevent COVID-19.”
Los otros siete articulos de la serie serán los siguientes:
- Sputnik moment or budget breaker: How will the pandemic alter research funding?
- How scientific conferences will survive the coronavirus shock
- Will the pandemic permanently alter scientific publishing?
- The pandemic is challenging China’s breakneck race to the top of science
- Scientists’ worlds will shrink in the wake of the pandemic
- The coronavirus outbreak could make it quicker and easier to trial drugs
- The pandemic mixed up what scientists study – and some won’t go back
