The Long-term Effect of Covid-19: Understanding how the covid-19 related policy exacerbated the inequality problem from the Perspective of Political Science & Data Science

The Long-term Effect of Covid-19: Understanding how the covid-19 related policy exacerbated the inequality problem from the Perspective of Political Science & Data Science

by Alexandra Hoi Ting LAW, Andrea Pui Yi TSANG

Supervised by Dr. Haohan Chen, Faculty of Social Sciences

Abstract

Due to the covid-19, the government has introduced a series of public policies to curb the spread of pandemic. In response to that, universities and other educational institutions have been closed for almost 1.5 years, changing into virtual learning. However, not every student has the resources and suitable learning environment to adapt to the New Normal. This does not only impact their mental well-being and academic performance, but also creates long-term impact, such as a widening knowledge gap for students who are not able to learn in virtual learning mode. Although HKU has finally resumed to the F2F mode, these impacts can be long-lasting. The research hopes to provide potential solutions to the existing problems, which would help to eliminate the inequality problems in universities and society-in-large. Through the survey (N = 237), in-depth interviews (N = 21)  and the art jamming projects, we find that the policies have impacted the HKU students financially, mentally and socially.

The reserach is divided into 3 components:

1) Survey 2) In-depth interview 3) Art Jamming Project.

We invited 237 HKU students paticipants to complete the survey. Then, we recruit 21  students for in-depth interview and paricipate in the art jamming project.

Art Jamming Project

We invited our interviewees to draw a picture with the provided Nagomi Art starting kit.

The topic is  ‘‘your feeling with online learning and covid related regulations’.  Drawing help them to relieve stress at home, but also help us to understand HKU students’ feeling under the pandemic

The collaborative art demonstrates the HKU students’ diverse emotions towards the pandemic and policies, which include hope, greivances, discontentment, and loneliness.

Project Poster