IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v27y2025i6d10.1007_s10668-024-04484-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impacts of the COVID-19 lockdowns on the work of academic staff at higher education institutions: an international assessment

Author

Listed:
  • Walter Leal Filho

    (UK Consortium on Sustainability Research, Manchester Metropolitan University
    Hamburg University of Applied Sciences)

  • Tony Wall

    (Liverpool John Moores University)

  • Amanda Lange Salvia

    (Hamburg University of Applied Sciences)

  • Claudio Ruy Vasconcelos

    (Federal University of Paraíba
    University of Minho)

  • Ismaila Rimi Abubakar

    (Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (Formerly, University of Dammam))

  • Aprajita Minhas

    (Hamburg University of Applied Sciences)

  • Mark Mifsud

    (University of Malta)

  • Valerija Kozlova

    (RISEBA University of Applied Sciences)

  • Violeta Orlovic Lovren

    (University of Belgrade)

  • Hossein Azadi

    (University of Liège)

  • Ayyoob Sharifi

    (Hiroshima University
    Lebanese American University)

  • Marina Kovaleva

    (Hamburg University of Applied Sciences)

  • Todd LeVasseur

    (Sustainability Literacy Institute)

  • Johannes Luetz

    (Alphacrucis University College (AC)
    The University of the Sunshine Coast (USC)
    University of New South Wales (UNSW))

  • Luis Velazquez

    (University of Sonora)

  • Priyatma Singh

    (The University of Fiji)

  • Rudi Pretorius

    (University of South Africa)

  • Noor Adelyna Mohammed Akib

    (University Sains Malaysia)

  • Tamara Savelyeva

    (The Hong Kong Institute of Education for Sustainable Development)

  • Luciana Brandli

    (University of Passo Fundo)

  • Nandhivarman Muthu

    (Pondicherry University)

  • Patrizia Lombardi

    (Politecnico di Torino)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted the life of millions of people around the world and brought changes in many contexts. In higher education institutions, teaching staff had to quickly adapt their teaching and research practices and revisit learning and student engagement strategies. In this context, this paper aimed to report on how the lockdowns influenced the work and lives of academic staff at universities. The methodology consisted of an online survey that collected 201 responses across 39 countries worldwide, and the results were explored using descriptive and exploratory modelling analyses. The findings reveal that the main positive aspect of the work-from-home experience during the lockdowns was the reduction of time spent on commuting, while the inability to disconnect and difficulties in work–life balance were the most commonly indicated negative aspects. The principal component analysis indicated that the pandemic had a moderate power in boosting academic staff towards sustainability, and an important potential of revising academic curricula and teaching–learning relationships. Based on the evidence gathered, recommendations to allow academic staff to better cope with the influence of future pandemics include the increased use of digital resources and new teaching styles, curricula revision for encouraging educators to include more issues related to sustainable development in their teaching and greater institutional support to reduce stressful conditions and improve productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Walter Leal Filho & Tony Wall & Amanda Lange Salvia & Claudio Ruy Vasconcelos & Ismaila Rimi Abubakar & Aprajita Minhas & Mark Mifsud & Valerija Kozlova & Violeta Orlovic Lovren & Hossein Azadi & Ayyo, 2025. "The impacts of the COVID-19 lockdowns on the work of academic staff at higher education institutions: an international assessment," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(6), pages 13973-13999, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:6:d:10.1007_s10668-024-04484-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-024-04484-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-024-04484-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-024-04484-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lena Waizenegger & Brad McKenna & Wenjie Cai & Taino Bendz, 2020. "An affordance perspective of team collaboration and enforced working from home during COVID-19," European Journal of Information Systems, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 429-442, July.
    2. Bongani T. Gamede & Oluwatoyin Ayodele Ajani & Olufemi Sunday Afolabi, 2022. "Exploring the Adoption and Usage of Learning Management System as Alternative for Curriculum Delivery in South African Higher Education Institutions during Covid-19 Lockdown," International Journal of Higher Education, Sciedu Press, vol. 11(1), pages 1-71, February.
    3. Wendy Chapple & Petra Molthan-Hill & Rachel Welton & Michael Hewitt, 2020. "Lights Off, Spot On: Carbon Literacy Training Crossing Boundaries in the Television Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(4), pages 813-834, April.
    4. Walter Leal Filho & Amanda Lange Salvia & Ismaila Rimi Abubakar & Mark Mifsud & Hossein Azadi & Ayyoob Sharifi & Todd LeVasseur & Johannes M. Luetz & Luis Velazquez & Priyatma Singh & Rudi Pretorius &, 2022. "Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Routines of Higher Education Institutions: A Global Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-19, October.
    5. Alejandro Salazar & Jenifer Palomo-Osuna & Helena de Sola & Jose A. Moral-Munoz & María Dueñas & Inmaculada Failde, 2021. "Psychological Impact of the Lockdown Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic in University Workers: Factors Related to Stress, Anxiety, and Depression," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-16, April.
    6. Karim Gazzeh & Ismaila Rimi Abubakar & Emad Hammad, 2022. "Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Global Flows of People and Goods: Implications on the Dynamics of Urban Systems," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-18, March.
    7. Eduard Edelhauser & Lucian Lupu-Dima, 2020. "Is Romania Prepared for eLearning during the COVID-19 Pandemic?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-30, July.
    8. Forsythe, Eliza & Kahn, Lisa B. & Lange, Fabian & Wiczer, David, 2020. "Labor demand in the time of COVID-19: Evidence from vacancy postings and UI claims," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    9. Holly Knight & Sophie Carlisle & Mórna O’Connor & Lydia Briggs & Lauren Fothergill & Amani Al-Oraibi & Mehmet Yildirim & Joanne R. Morling & Jessica Corner & Jonathan Ball & Chris Denning & Kavita Ved, 2021. "Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Self-Isolation on Students and Staff in Higher Education: A Qualitative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-16, October.
    10. Walter Leal Filho & Elizabeth Price & Tony Wall & Chris Shiel & Ulisses M. Azeiteiro & Mark Mifsud & Luciana Brandli & Carla Sofia Farinha & Sandra Caeiro & Amanda Lange Salvia & Claudio Ruy Vasconcel, 2021. "COVID-19: the impact of a global crisis on sustainable development teaching," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(8), pages 11257-11278, August.
    11. Anne M. van Valkengoed & Linda Steg, 2019. "Meta-analyses of factors motivating climate change adaptation behaviour," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 9(2), pages 158-163, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maciej Berk{e}sewicz & Herman Cherniaiev & Robert Pater, 2021. "Estimating the number of entities with vacancies using administrative and online data," Papers 2106.03263, arXiv.org.
    2. Andreea Barbu & Mirona Ana Maria Popescu & Georgiana Moiceanu, 2022. "Perspective of Teachers and Students towards the Education Process during COVID-19 in Romanian Universities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-21, March.
    3. Christian Maier & Sven Laumer & Tim Weitzel, 2022. "A Dark Side of Telework: A Social Comparison-Based Study from the Perspective of Office Workers," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 64(6), pages 793-811, December.
    4. Jongseok Ahn, 2020. "Unequal Loneliness in the Digitalized Classroom: Two Loneliness Effects of School Computers and Lessons for Sustainable Education in the E-Learning Era," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-20, September.
    5. Joye Khoo & Adrian (Wai Kong) Cheung, 2023. "Does skilled labor risk matter to suppliers? Evidence from trade credit," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 58(2), pages 423-447, May.
    6. Bisin, Alberto & Moro, Andrea, 2022. "Spatial‐SIR with network structure and behavior: Lockdown rules and the Lucas critique," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 370-388.
    7. Hilary Byerly Flint & Paul Cada & Patricia A. Champ & Jamie Gomez & Danny Margoles & James R. Meldrum & Hannah Brenkert-Smith, 2022. "You vs. us: framing adaptation behavior in terms of private or social benefits," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 174(1), pages 1-17, September.
    8. Jaravel, Xavier & O'Connell, Martin, 2020. "Real-time price indices: Inflation spike and falling product variety during the Great Lockdown," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    9. Heidi E Brown & Erika Austhof & Paula M Luz & Daniel B Ferguson, 2023. "Economics, health, or environment: What motivates individual climate action?," PLOS Climate, Public Library of Science, vol. 2(8), pages 1-16, August.
    10. Joshua D. Gottlieb & Avi Zenilman, 2020. "When Workers Travel: Nursing Supply During COVID-19 Surges," NBER Working Papers 28240, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Dong, Zhanyu & Cai, Jiayi & Li, Xuchao & Luan, Mengna, 2025. "Firm-level impacts and recovery dynamics following a public health crisis: Lessons from China’s SARS experience," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    12. Carolina Feliciana Machado & João Paulo Davim, 2022. "Higher Education for Sustainability: A Bibliometric Approach—What, Where and Who Is Doing Research in This Subject?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-15, April.
    13. Barrero, Jose Maria & Bloom, Nick & Davis, Steven J., 2020. "Why Working From Home Will Stick," SocArXiv wfdbe, Center for Open Science.
    14. Nicholas Bloom & Philip Bunn & Paul Mizen & Pawel Smietanka & Gregory Thwaites, 2025. "The Impact of Covid-19 on Productivity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 107(1), pages 28-41, January.
    15. Susana Ferreira, 2024. "Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change: Economic Impacts and Adaptation Policies," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 16(1), pages 207-231, October.
    16. Alfred Olfert & Gérard Hutter, 2025. "Strategic Communication and Evaluation to Improve the Capacities of Local Administration for Climate Change Adaptation: A Case Study on Dresden, Germany," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 61-79, March.
    17. Blanas, Sotiris & Oikonomou, Rigas, 2023. "COVID-induced economic uncertainty, tasks and occupational demand," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    18. Alejandra Bellatin & Gabriela Galassi, 2022. "What COVID-19 May Leave Behind: Technology-Related Job Postings in Canada," Staff Working Papers 22-17, Bank of Canada.
    19. Alipour, Jean-Victor & Fadinger, Harald & Schymik, Jan, 2021. "My home is my castle – The benefits of working from home during a pandemic crisis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    20. Kwan Ok Lee & Hyojung Lee, 2022. "Public responses to COVID‐19 case disclosure and their spatial implications," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 732-756, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:6:d:10.1007_s10668-024-04484-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.