Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide commentary on the challenges and impacts of the pandemic crisis to higher education institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia. It also outlines mitigation plans, innovative strategies adopted and implications and recommendations to HEIs.

Design/methodology/approach

The research study uses a discourse analysis to examine the higher education challenges and impacts of the pandemic in Malaysia.

Findings

The findings reveal that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the higher education sector in Malaysia significantly. Both lecturers and students in HEIs are faced with multiple challenges in teaching and learning. The effect was more severe in East Malaysia due to poor Internet connectivity for online learning. Nevertheless, COVID-19 also provides an opportunity to HEIs to reconstruct the education system and establish updated programmes and assessments. The success of online learning to mitigate the impacts is still unknown.

Research limitations/implications

The review of the literature and news are not comprehensive as the current pandemic crisis is not over.

Originality/value

This paper is presumably representing a frontier review with more empirical research studies to be conducted to investigate the extent of the current crisis affecting teaching and learning in HEIs in Malaysia. Though there were some commentaries on how the pandemic affects education, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first commentary paper in higher education realm in Malaysia.

中文翻译：

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面对未知：马来西亚的大流行和高等教育

目的

本文的目的是就大流行危机对马来西亚高等教育机构（HEIs）带来的挑战和影响提供评论。它还概述了缓解计划，采用的创新策略以及对高校的影响和建议。

设计/方法/方法

该研究使用话语分析来研究高等教育的挑战和大流行在马来西亚的影响。

发现

调查结果表明，2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行已严重影响了马来西亚的高等教育部门。高校的讲师和学生在教学方面都面临着多重挑战。由于用于在线学习的互联网连接质量较差，在东马的影响更为严重。尽管如此，COVID-19也为高校提供了一个机会，以重建教育体系并建立更新的计划和评估。在线学习减轻影响的成功性仍然未知。

研究局限/意义

由于当前的大流行危机尚未结束，因此对文学和新闻的评论尚不全面。

创意/价值

本文推测是一项前沿评论，将进行更多的实证研究，以调查当前危机影响马来西亚高校教学活动的程度。尽管有关于流行病如何影响教育的评论，但据作者所知，这是马来西亚高等教育领域的第一篇评论文章。