For the past five years, we’ve debated “learning loss” in K-12 settings, and findings make this loss impossible to ignore. However, in higher education, we’ve done far less to examine how Covid-19 policies and online-era norms have reshaped student expectations and the fabric of teaching itself.

The integrity of assessments has taken a hit, for instance. More than since the pandemic, and roughly half indicating that they could not pass their courses without doing so. That doesn’t indict students so much as highlight the rapid shift to assessment formats that made cheating easier – such as open notes and unproctored tests. But these opportunities to cheat were not withdrawn when we returned to the classroom – and the advent of artificial intelligence has only added another one.

Consider grading. During the pandemic, many institutions adopted “”, pass/fail options, withdrawals without penalty and generous grading curves that (justifiably) aimed to preserve progress and well-being. This flexibility was warranted, and in many ways, it worked. However, of students and educators underscores the trade-offs: flexibility can widen access and humanise teaching while also posing “long-term consequences” if left unbounded. And it is not the only to show that equity-minded policies changed outcomes in ways that did not always promote learning in the long run.

Improved GPAs in the first Covid year were mostly explained by students’ use of flexible grading (such as the “credit granted” option, whereby a unit counts toward degree requirements but does not affect GPA), rather than improved content mastery. Moreover, students whose institutions used the pass/fail option were more likely to .

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Meanwhile, faculty across disciplines describe more frequent deadline negotiations, serial revision expectations, decreased participation and attendance, fewer students completing assigned reading, and a coarser edge to classroom interactions. on academic incivility, already a pre-pandemic concern, reports that it remains pervasive, and this is hardly surprising after years of camera-off learning and mediated communication. Even in online courses today, cameras remain off and participation minimal.

In our own experience as university instructors, we’ve seen students increasingly air grievances in class or group settings, challenging faculty publicly in ways that would once have been handled privately during office hours. Requests for deadline extensions and multiple rounds of revisions have become routine, as though flexibility was not an exception but an entitlement, further increasing faculty workload.

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Students expect grace but rarely reciprocate it. Indeed, some now approach their coursework with a consumer-service mindset – going above faculty heads to demand changes to grades they fully merited, treating professors like gatekeepers of a product rather than educators.

Too often, there are few consequences for missing class, submitting late work, or skipping assignments. Students (sometimes rightly) assume that deadlines and policies are negotiable – an expectation often reinforced when instructors hesitate to enforce standards, sometimes under administrative pressure to prioritise retention and satisfaction.

This matters because the high school seniors of 2020-2021 are today’s college graduates, now entering the workforce or graduate school. They’ve navigated college under norms forged in crisis. Employers are the next reality check, and they rarely grade on a curve. They will not extend rolling deadlines, allow revisions on deliverables or accept “pass” in place of competence.

We can meet students where they are without lowering the bar. Here’s a practical recalibration agenda that preserves the best of pandemic-era empathy while restoring the accountability and clarity students need to thrive in higher education and beyond.

First, publish guardrails for flexibility. This includes course-level norms to reduce ad hoc bargaining and make expectations concrete. Examples include allowing only one no-questions-asked absence per course, limiting the grace period on late work to 24 hours, and imposing limits on revisions. Flexibility has its place but commitment and follow-through are non-negotiables for student success.

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Second, restore assessment validity by, where feasible, moving away from high-stakes, unproctored online exams. In-person assessment or project-based learning tasks that demand critical thinking and authentic application can increase mastery of the material and discourage the possibility of cheating.

Third, implement special rules for gateway and sequenced curricula, such as Stats I and Stats II. Pass/fail grading should be restricted in prerequisite courses, and previous content should be reviewed before students advance to the next unit or course. Consistent scaffolding promotes long-term knowledge retention and mediates academic gaps.

Fourth, don’t assume students “pick up” professional etiquette after years of remote learning. Discuss your expectations for classroom conduct explicitly and document these transparently in your syllabus or a short module. One way to do this is to on the first day of class for both the instructor (such as responding to emails within 36 hours) and students (such as engaging with peers in an open-minded, respectful manner).

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Fifth, implement tools to solicit periodic feedback and identify student concerns, such as mid-semester check-ins, anonymous surveys or reflection prompts. This allows instructors to course-correct before the end of the semester and subsequent teaching evaluations.

Finally, promote students’ accountability and establish clear consequences by pairing regular checkpoints (such as individual instructor-student conferences, peer accountability partners and ) with timely feedback (such as grading by the next class meeting, and assigning placement zeros until missing work is submitted). Consistent enforcement makes expectations clearer over time and shifts the classroom culture toward accountability rather than negotiation.

None of this blames students or educators, who did what the Covid crisis demanded. Our responsibility now, however, is to convert emergency accommodations into durable, transparent standards that are inclusive and exacting.

We learned a lot about kindness during the pandemic. Graduates will benefit when we match that kindness with the structure and clarity the world will expect of them.

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is visiting assistant professor of educational research and Kailea Q. Manning is a doctoral candidate in educational psychology at Auburn University, Alabama.