Canada & COVID: Higher Education’s Top 5 Challenges

Canada & COVID: Higher Education’s Top 5 Challenges

Greetings from the Parchment team in Canada! At Parchment, we’ve been looking at how Canada and its higher education institutions have risen to the COVID occasion. Our research and discussions with many of you have revealed to us the top challenges faced by higher education in Canada, along with the many (and impressive) steps you’ve taken to address them.

Given the uncertainty around the 2020-2021 academic year, we can relate to the concern over the myriad of concerns related to teaching, learning, and staying safe in a COVID world. For most, is not all, it is an incredibly stressful time.

We don’t doubt that COVID-19 will leave a lasting imprint on higher education. There will be no going back to normal as we knew it before the pandemic hit. Today, the future of higher ed looks substantially different, and only time will tell how it will all work out.

One thing is clear. We are all on this unprecedented journey together — on a global level. Here are the top 5 challenges we believe Canada’s higher ed institutions are facing during these unprecedented times:

• Enrollment and economics
• Health and safety of students on campus
• Ongoing transition to hybrid learning and digital delivery
• Providing the best student experience
• Need for a digital credential solution

For a deep dive into the research related to these 5 challenges, click here to learn more from our Canada and COVID brief.

How Parchment Can Help 

Today, you are busy responding and adapting to the challenges of the COVID pandemic, and exploring new partnerships is likely not a priority right now. For some institutions like Ontario Tech, the need was now, and they implemented a digital credential solution that met all their requirements, including support for Canadian currency. That means no conversion charges when students order credentials. If or when you do need a credential management partner, we’ll be there.

Your Growing Canada Parchment Team

• Kara Gourley, Canadian National Manager, Halifax, Nova Scotia
• Jesse Parrish, Parchment Business Analyst – Toronto, Ontario
• Patrick Zhang, Manager, Software Engineer – Toronto, Ontario
• Jason Chen, Software Engineer – Toronto, Ontario

There’s always more to learn.