The Perspectives of Distance Learning in Higher Education: Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered changes in higher education and put to light the question of the future of education. The goal of the research was to gather the opinions of students, who are the main stakeholders of education, concerning their perception of various forms of education in the context of distance learning and their preferences and predictions on the future shape of education. 1005 students of the Cracow University of Economics, Poland, share their opinion participating in the survey. The results point to a diversification of the student population as far as their perception of distance learning is concerned: students with greater experience in traditional higher education and part time students favored distance learning more and foresee it as the future of education, which is in line with the necessity of facilitating life-long learning. Hence, universities have to adjust their offer to different student preferences in order to survive.