Challenges and Reforms in Gulf Higher Education: Confronting the COVID-19 Pandemic and Assessing Future Implications(Educational Policy and Leadership in the Middle East and North Africa)

This edited volume explores the educational reforms and challenges in higher education in the Gulf countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Featuring a truly global spread of contributors and perspectives from countries such as Bahrain, India, Georgia, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, the book navigates experience-based and practice-linked research spectrum of the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education. It targets key challenges such as the move to online and distance learning, the impact of job-related stress, and the preparedness of institutional risk management. Using qualitative research, autoethnographic accounts, and case study findings, the book makes recommendations for reform implementation within higher education as well as discusses the wider socio-cultural and political landscape left by the pandemic in the Gulf region. Highlighting current trends and challenges based on empirical works of the authors, the book will be of interest to scholars, researchers, and academics in the field of higher education, international and comparative education, and leadership strategy more specifically. Those involved with educational technology, education policy, and middle-eastern studies will also find the book of value.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Part 1 – Understanding Regional Higher Education Reforms in a COVID-19 Context Chapter 1 Potential Reforms in the GCC Higher Education Post COVID-19 Chapter 2 Pandemic Upsurge: Insights from Higher Education Reforms in the Gulf Chapter 3 Toward a Self-Sustainable Higher Education Quality Assurance System: NFCFFE Model for Higher Education Quality Improvement and Assurance Chapter 4 Pandemic Challenges of Higher Education: Reconsidering Core Values Chapter 5 Higher Education in the COVID-19 Environment: ICT-based Perspective for GCC Countries Chapter 6 Application of Risk Management on COVID-19 by Universities in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Chapter 7 Directions in Gulf Higher Education: Conclusion Part 2 – Reframing Higher Education Reforms Chapter 8 An Empirical Analysis of Oman’s Public and Private HEI Students’ Behavioural Intention (BI) in Using E-learning during COVID-19 Chapter 9 Transforming Online Teaching of a First-Year Business Course: An Autoethnographic Reflection of Managing Teaching and Learning amidst the Pandemic in the Gulf Region Chapter 10 University of Buraimi in Oman: Pandemic Lessons and Initiatives for Education Reform from Instructors’ Perspectives Chapter 11 The Role of Internal Crisis Communication on Faculty Members’ Implementation of Blended Learning Practices in the Gulf Chapter 12 Impact of Job-related Stress on Professional and Personal Life during Coronavirus Pandemic Chapter 13 COVID-19 and the New Normal: Re-Imagining the Future of Higher Education Chapter 14 Gulf Higher Education Reforms vis-à-vis the Pandemic: Conclusion

About the Author :
Reynaldo Gacho Segumpan is Professor and Dean, City Graduate School, City University Malaysia and Fellow, Higher Education Academy, UK. John McAlaney is Chartered Psychologist and Professor in Psychology, Bournemouth University, UK.