The purpose of this paper is to show the necessary competence sets for Higher Education
(HE) lecturers in the framework of the COVID and post-COVID. A COVID-situated competence
survey was carried out among university lecturers. Exploratory and confirmatory factor
analyses (EFA, CFA) were applied to show the significant digital education competence
factors. The representative online survey of 322 respondents shows that three big
competence sets can be identified: Awareness, Professional, and Digital. Those having
higher scores in Professional competencies foresee more digital programs and communications
in the future, and not only the digital competencies but also the professional ones
should be developed to meet the requirements of the digital education transformation
process. The findings emphasize that the forced and drastic changes in the application
of digital education to the intensification of COVID-19 should become sustainable
and find its proper place and role in the future HE. The structured and closely managed
use of the results was followed by a set of digital and professional competence development
initiatives carried out within the framework of the Digital Education and Learning
Support Centre, founded in 2020 at the University of Pécs.
