Children and COVID-19 Research Library

This study is based on a survey conducted during the International Masterclasses days taken place in almost all the Italian universities during, before, and after the Covid-19 pandemic. More than one thousand students per year mostly enrolled in scientific high schools, performed data analysis using real data collected by high energy physics experiments, about one hundred students per year familiarized with the actual operation technique used for cancer treatment employing x-rays (Particle Therapy). The survey collected the feedback given on a voluntary basis by a sub-sample of the students who participated to the 2018, 2021 (remote), and 2022 editions. Answers show a constant and significant appreciation in the activity, but also a progressive decrease of interest in physics and in technical or scientific professions or research professions in “hard” science matters. In the study presented here, the reasons of interest/disinterest in scientific fields have been investigated.

The COVID-19 pandemic generated high mortality in various countries, which may have had an impact on the mental health of young people. The objective of the study was to evaluate whether the death of a family member or close friend due to COVID-19 generated a higher prevalence of depression, anxiety, or moderate/severe stress in university health sciences students in Latin America. This is an analytical cross-sectional study, with secondary data; depression, anxiety, and stress were measured with a validated survey. In addition, data were obtained on the deaths by COVID-19 of family members or close friends, illness and other socio-economic variables. Descriptive and analytical statistics were obtained.

The pandemic of Covid-19 brought significant changes to the education system  and  forcibly  accelerated  the  process  of  digitizing  teaching.  Students and educators  had  to  adapt  to  the  new  way  of  education,  facing  challenges  such as technical problems and a lack of technical skills and social contact. The purpose of the paper was to explore the attitudes of the university and high school educators and students towards the pandemic's impact on digitization in teaching. Data  were  collected  through  a  questionnaire  distributed  to university  and  high  school educators  and  students  in  Croatia,  Poland,  Serbia  and Germany in  the  field  of  accounting,  finance,  trade,  tourism,  and other areas of interest,  resulting  in 2,897 responses.  The  results  were  analyzed  using  descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected sport participation at universities around the world. The decision to participate among sport-minded youth at university is influenced by numerous factors. The study was conducted to investigate a certain salient factors determining decision-making by university youth about participating in team sport. The sample was represented by 324 members of university youth who were selected using a multi-stage sampling method. They voluntarily responded to an electronic survey with no renumerations. Binary logistic regression was chosen as the statistical technique used to evaluate the hypotheses.

The role secondary schools play in raising student aspirations for, and encouraging progression into, Higher Education through supported outreach is important but often overlooked by both colleges and universities alike. This article reports on our work within Uni Connect’s ‘Raising Higher Education Aspirations’ programme in Lincolnshire which delivers targeted university-inspiring transitional outreach activities to Year 9–13 students from disadvantaged backgrounds with low levels of social and cultural capital, little or no familial habitus of Higher Education and where Higher Education participation is lower than expected. Specifically, this article considers university-inspiring transitional outreach from the perspective of six secondary school Uni Connect programme leads. Semi-structured interviews conducted with school leads over a 12-month period between October 2019 and November 2020 provided a unique insight into the successes and challenges schools face in delivering aspirational Higher Education outreach.

Imagine a room full of university students in India: young men and women sitting shoulder to shoulder in equal numbers. Fast forward 10 years: 8 out of those 10 men are likely to be active in the work force compared to only 3 out of 10 of the women. This example illustrates one of the great conundrums of India’s female labor force participation: a low and rapidly declining participation rate (even before the COVID-19 pandemic) despite economic growth and women’s increasing enrollment in tertiary education. This policy brief demonstrates how a digital mentoring policy and practice ecosystem could attract a range of stakeholders to support the transition of young Indian women from tertiary education into the labor force.