No Recovery from the COVID-Slide Yet: The Reading Skills of Undergraduate Students

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic led to learning loss in reading, but evidence of its severity and persistence in post-secondary education remains scarce. This paper estimates the pandemic’s impact on reading proficiency and related skills.Method We examined two datasets assessing English reading comprehension and component skills. The first included five annual undergraduate cohorts at two Canadian universities (N = 6,386; mean age = 19.3, SD = 3.2; 76% women, 22% men, 2% other). The second included four longitudinal cohorts of Canadian, UK, and US students (N = 1,936; mean age = 21.7, SD = 3.5; 56% women, 38% men, 6% other), tested annually for two or three years. Together, the studies span 2020–2025, covering the lockdown period and three subsequent years.Results Both studies revealed a weak but persistent decline (~0.15–0.20 SD) in vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and word identification, alongside a lack of expected gains in reading comprehension. Listening comprehension temporarily declined both within and between participants but recovered after social and physical restrictions were lifted.Conclusion Differences in the severity and persistence of pandemic effects provide insight into the stability of reading-related skills among university students and the interrelationships among these skills.