Changes and challenges in research and teaching at the University of Guadalajara with, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The objective of this text is to analyze the changes and the main challenges that the academic community has experienced in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. We start from the assumption that the ways of doing research, teaching and training new researchers were reactively revolutionized in practically all areas of knowledge in the face of the health emergency; in most cases virtual environments or ecosystems became the main factor for the management of scientific and academic knowledge. However, this also implied a series of challenges that are worth delving into based on such questions as: how have research and teaching been developed in recent months? What have been the main obstacles to the generation of new knowledge? What strategies have been implemented to carry out field work? What is the balance in relation to academic training and the production of new knowledge? The first part of this document describes the dynamics and strategies that the University of Guadalajara developed in research and teaching before the arrival of COVID-19. We then identify the main changes and strategies that the institution adopted with and during the health emergency. In the third section, we point out the main challenges that researchers, teachers and the university community will face in the short term with respect to the development of research and teaching after the pandemic.