Educational outcomes and resilience in higher education during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant changes in higher education, not only through the sudden shift to fully remote education but also through the responses of households, institutions, and families. Using repeated cross-sectional student-level data from 2016 to 2022, the analysis estimates linear regression models to capture changes resulting from the pandemic crisis and the recovery of the higher education system in Columbia. The analysis examines changes in standardized test performance across multiple domains and incorporates students’ prior achievement to assess value-added learning. The findings reveal that inequalities in human capital accumulation have widened: affluent students improved their educational outcomes, whereas less advantaged students experienced declines two years after the closures. Women generally experienced greater losses than men, except in reading, where they showed greater resilience. Students in disciplines that depend heavily on experiential, hands-on learning, such as sports, the arts, architecture, and engineering, were the most affected and recovered the slowest, largely because remote instruction constrained access to practical training, specialized facilities, and competency-based activities essential to their programs. Overall, the results highlight the distinct implications of the pandemic and the uneven pace of resilience across students’ characteristics.