The Challenges and Opportunities of Higher Educationin Romania During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysisof Teachers' and Students' Perceptions of Online Education

The education system was massively affected by the COVID-19 pandemics. While primary and secondary education used a mixed combination of online and faceto-face teaching, tertiary education was conducted uniquely online from the beginning of the pandemics, requesting fast adaptation in terms of teaching and learning. Moving classes online was a challenge, especially in the Romanian social background where digital skills are among the less developed in the European Union. The achievement of these competencies is the reason for a large gap between generations. In this context, we are interested in how strongly academic work was affected. We used a questionnaire based on students’ and university lecturers’ perceptions to assess the changes induced by the pandemic in the online activity. We also test if the differences in terms of skills, attitudes, online interaction are caused by intergenerational issues aiming to enrich the literature evidence with personal recommendations for better adapting learning and teaching requirements in times of change.