Universities Shaken by Earthquakes: A Comparison of Faculty and Student Experiences in Nepal and New Zealand

Abstract

The authors compare the experiences of faculty and students at universities in Nepal and New Zealand following earthquakes in 2015 and 2011, respectively. Questionnaire data from students at Kathmandu University are analyzed and compared with previously published data from the University of Canterbury. Prominent themes are developed within the context of the cultural and socioeconomic differences between the two settings. Both similarities and contrasts are described, detailing scheduling changes, the role of students in their community’s response to natural disaster, flexibility of faculty, psychological trauma and treatment, and use of online-learning as a substitute for classroom learning. Lessons learned from the comparison of the responses to these two earthquakes demonstrate how culturally and socioeconomically different contexts necessitate distinct actions from the faculty of different universities.