Effects of COVID-19 on Turkish Higher Education

Abstract

In this study, we aim to examine how global pandemic and distance learning practices affect students’ achievement levels in Turkish Higher Education. Using the results of a survey conducted with 570 students from Istanbul Medeniyet University Faculty of Political Sciences, we study the effects of the changing learning environment on success grades of students. Firstly, we compare the GPAs of students between the periods of 2019-2020 Fall and Spring Semester, which in the latter we have confronted with COVID-19 pandemic and applied online teaching methods with the closure of schools. We document the positive effect of pandemic on students’ achievement levels between the two semesters. Then we compare the GPAs amongst students in the spring semester to analyze if their opportunities for reaching online education have affected their success. We document the negative effect of pandemic on students’ achievement levels that have fewer opportunities to use technological devices and for connection to internet than the others do in the period of the spring semester. Connection method of students to the courses did not cause a difference in terms of achievement levels among students because most of the students in our sample are able to connect to lessons somehow. Finally we found no significant effect of students’ gender or spatial opportunities on their achievement levels. © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Berlin 2021.