Those, who were least affected by the coronavirus epidemic, were highly skilled university graduates with opportunities to work from home. Prof. Oğuz Esen, Lecturer, Department of Economics, Izmir University of Economics (IUE), who had been the guest of Pandemic Academy, held by IUE Faculty of Communication as part of Campus Izmir talks, stated that the university graduates kept both their health, their income and their jobs.
Prof. Esen delivered a seminar titled, “How the Outbreak Affects Higher Education?”, moderated by Prof. Ebru Uzunoğlu, Dean of IUE Faculty of Communication. The seminar is available at IUE’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=311S-JauseU. Noting that the epidemic also revealed the social benefits of higher education, Prof. Esen said, “In addition to offering higher income, a better life to university graduates, university education offers social benefits such as development of innovation culture, economic development and public health as well. It can be said that social benefit will be more prominent in education and research policies of post-epidemic higher education.” Stating that switching to online education by taking a break from face to face education shows that digital technologies would be used in education in a more effective and innovative way in the future, Prof. Esen emphasized that institutional arrangements were needed within the framework of a national strategy for this to happen.
