The Bottom Line

Will the coronavirus change higher education forever?

As COVID-19 forces more schools to forgo traditional face-to-face learning, we look at how universities are adapting.

Eduardo Padron knows a thing or two about running an institution of higher education.

For more than 20 years, he was the president of Miami Dade College, one of the biggest colleges in the United States, with more than 150,000 students.

In this conversation with Al Jazeera’s Steve Clemons, Padron discusses his concerns about US higher education and the disruption caused by COVID-19.

With so many universities going online for the next academic year, will students remain engaged?

Will students and parents be willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to expensive universities for an online education?

Will students miss out on the “college experience”, where they can mix with fellow students from different backgrounds and experiences?

And with the Trump administration’s recently announced rules further diminishing the presence of international students, what will the future look like for them on US campuses?