Space as an un/equalizer in times of technology and crisis in higher education

This paper problematizes the argument that technology supports spaceless education, and analyses how space acts during remote teaching. This study examines how physical spaces can act as un/equalizer among higher education students. With interview data produced by international students studying in Finnish universities during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, our study shows that spaces play a pivotal role in shaping study experiences. When the universities’ physical spaces were closed, the introduced pedagogical practices, along with students’ socio-material realities, formed new entanglements that positioned higher education students in different, often unequal, positions.