IThe Covid-19 pandemic moved digital learning from being a growing but niche activity within management education, to centre stage in dramatic fashion.

Our sector witnessed an unprecedented period of innovation as faculty and professional staff found themselves scrambling to redesign their activities for online format. Classes, tutorials, careers support, clubs, alumni events and even graduation ceremonies all adopted a digital form.

As the disruption caused by the pandemic enters its second year, and the end steadily comes into view, a key consideration is to question the degree to which these digital formats of education will revert to their prior format. Which online processes will endure? And which will not? Business school leaders can shape the answer to this question and sit at a critical moment, needing to decide whether to seize the opportunities presented by the crisis.

To help answer these questions, David Lefevre positions the longer-term effects of the pandemic as an acceleration of an existing technology driven trend within management education rather than a fleeting moment in the spotlight.