Here INOMICS will be offering the latest news on how the coronavirus (COVID-19) is affecting the world of economics, so you can keep abreast of what the pandemic means for higher education, careers, and academia.

15:00 8 June 2020

As some countries begin to loosen their lockdowns to varying degrees of success, many universities are still playing it on the safe side. The University of Surey, for example, has moved its CIMS summer school course online. This will be from the 7th to 12th of September 2020.

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12:00 5 May 2020

The UK government has refused to bail out universities which are suffering due to the coronavirus pandemic. Institutions will however be able to charge full tuition fees for the duration of lockdown, and £2.6 billion in tuition fees will be paid early.

The government has also imposed a cap on the number of students which can enrol next academic year, and £100 million has been allocated in research funding.

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10:30 5 May 2020

ResumeGenius has put together a report on how people can adapt to the US job market in these changing times. Read the report here.

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15:00 29 April 2020

As the coronavirus pandemic becomes somewhat under control in a few countries, some states are looking at slightly opening up their economies again. In Germany shops have opened (admittedly with limited opening hours) and in most German states people are allowed to go shopping while wearing a face mask. New Zealand, which possibly has the virus more under control than any other country, is slowly opening up shops and letting children go back to school. Denmark and Germany have put similar educational policies into place, with schools steadily letting some students through their doors. Other countries will potentially follow suit - some American states are also considering opening up, although commentators say this is too early. All of this may contribute to the economies of some countries partly recovering after the hit they have taken due to this pandemic.

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11:00 23 April 2020

More of INOMICS' customers' programs are being placed online in order to combat the spread of the coronavirus. The following courses are taking place in a digital capacity:

• University of Rome Tor Vergata The Call for Application for the Ph.D. Economics and Finance is now online. After 1.5 months waiting for the green light to start active recruitment, the university is happy to open the call for applications. Online lessons, exams and graduation sessions, as well as remote support for applicants is offered at the university. Staff will keep an eye on further developments of the pandemic in Italy and inform prospective and current students accordingly.
• EcoMod Conference 2020 In-person presentations in the parallel sessions have been cancelled because of the pandemic. They will be included in EcoMod2021 which will take place in Milan in July 2021. The plenary sessions of EcoMod2020 will take place via video conferencing. Research prizes to be awarded to young researchers in the Young Investigator Training Program have been transferred to EcoMod2021. A new call for applications will be issued in September.
• EcoMod Summer School 2020 The summer school has been postponed to September 21-25, 2020. Participants will be able to attend in person as well as attend virtually. EcoMod is also working on developing some online courses. More information can be found on the INOMICS announcement.
• Business and Data Science Institute 
• The application process is still up and running for the new program Research Master Business Data Science starting in September 2020.  The program is well prepared to adjust to the current circumstances, whether that be offline, online, or hybrid. The Business Data Science Research Master's is an initiative of the schools of economics and business of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, University of Amsterdam, and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

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14:00 14 April 2020

Universities are shut down for the foreseeable future, and as a replacement, virtual campus tours are becoming more and more popular. As students are unable to travel abroad to study, this is a great way for them to remain connected to their university, and has grown not only among prospective but also among accepted and deferred students.

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12:00 14 April 2020

There is some worry that there will be a slump in language learning and courses as providers and universities take too long to respond to the crisis. Founder of E2Language Jarrad Merlo has said a failure to adapt to these changing times 'will cause staff burnout and slumps in revenue', which may mean some schools have to close their doors permanently.

E2Language in the meantime has launched a new project, E2Classroom, to try and help schools while they shift to an online experience. INOMICS offers online courses for language learning among a range of other subjects, as well as advice on how to best learn languages remotely.

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21:00 10 April 2020

As countries begin to extend their isolation times, such as France which yesterday announced it would continue until the 11 May, universities begin to extend their application dates. CERGE-IE, for example, in Prague, which is the shared workspace of Charles University and The Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, has given students more time to prepare for their higher education.

The deadline for submitting applications to Ph.D. in Economics, Master in Economic Research and Master in Applied Economics has been extended to April 30, 2020. Due to the recent situation caused by the coronavirus, all CERGE-EI lectures and consultations take place online. The admissions offices are available for you in case you have any questions or need further help: phd@cerge-ei.cz, maer@cerge-ei.cz, mae@cerge-ei.cz.

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14:20 8 April 2020

Universities and other institutions continue to put courses and programs online. As of today, two more courses have gone online:

• Lancaster University's High Frequency Financial Econometrics using Matlab has been put online. This is a two day course.
• 6 different online course are being held by CEBEX between 20 July and 22 July and then the 27 and 30 July. 2 are crash courses which consist of 15 hours of lectures and give 2 ECTS credit points, and 4 are advanced courses which are 20 hours of lectures and give 4 ECTS points respectively.

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13:00 6 April 2020

The most optimistic projections for a return to some kind of semi-normality are in three months. The forecast relies on the expectation that governments will invest several trillion in order to stop the crisis.

However, more pessimistic predictions say that at least one year of 'abnormal conditions' in higher education are to be expected. On top of this, student mobility is expected to recover in no sooner than five years. This means for anyone currently studying at university, it might be worth preparing for an odd learning experience for at least the rest of the year, and perhaps quite a bit longer than that.

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9:00 2 April 2020

Numbers have been released for the downloads of video chat apps in March. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Zoom was downloaded the most, at over 27 million times. Houseparty and Skype both saw their downloads more than double.

With this, some educational technology (ed tech) companies are offering their services for free to universities. One example is the platform Busuu, which has begun offering free streamed language courses. Many others have also offered their remote learning and teaching tools for free to universities during this time. When semesters begin again across the higher education world, it may be that these apps are the solution to keep education afloat.

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17:00 1 April 2020

Despite the pandemic, reports suggest that plans to study abroad remain steady. Although many courses of study are being delayed - with around 65% of students at the end of March saying they would delay their studies - many seem resolute to study abroad when they are able to again. It remains to be seen just when this will be.

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13:00 1 April 2020

Events continue to be cancelled across Europe. Institutions and universities are, however, trying to figure out ways to make sure participants can still attend without having to break their isolation. The Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies has recently moved its 2020 summer school online, meaning those who wish to join will be able to attend zia ZOOM.

Read our information on the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies summer academy.

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15:00 30 March 2020

Airline EasyJet has now grounded its entire fleet due to new restrictions put in place by the European Union. From April 1st staff will be payed just 80% of their normal wage. EasyJet has said it cannot predict when it will start flying planes again.

Virgin Atlantic in the meantime has requested a bailout to prevent it from going under. Although EasyJet has said it will not need one, the prediction is that other airlines will follow suit. The British government has said it will only help airlines on a case-by-case basis as a last resort.

What this means for the state of the airline industry remains to be seen, particularly if governments refuse to bail out companies which are in trouble.

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30 March 2020

As of today, universities remain shut for the foreseeable future. Many have cancelled their summer semesters and decided to hold their courses online. Some of these, such as that offered by the Freie Universität Berlin, are optional, but participants won't earn any credits for participation. This has been controversial as it means those students which are less stable financially will have to pay for a whole semester which runs but won't get them any closer to graduation.

Read our piece for more information on the impact the coronavirus has on higher education.

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27 March 2020

Supply chains in Germany are expected to be hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with supply chain managers expecting the worse and some companies, such as Cosco and Maersk, already having to leave ships at port in China. As many suppliers are based in China, it remains to be seen how companies will cope with the lack of goods coming into the country.