The third biennial SOTL in the South Conference took place online between November 22 and 25, 2021. The theme of the conference was ‘Beyond the Pandemic: Lessons for the Future of SOTL in the Global South’. This theme was in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which raised fundamental and urgent questions for the scholarship of teaching and learning. This special issue of the SOTL in the South journal addresses the question of how the challenges associated with academic life in lockdown and the transition to online teaching and learning have been experienced by students, lecturers, support staff, and academic managers in institutions and across society more broadly. The issue features six peer-reviewed contributions and one reflective piece.  This is the first part of what will be a two-part special issue. In this first part, the lens offered privileges the perspective of university management, lecturers, academic advisors, doctoral supervisors, and tutors. The second part of the special issue, to be published in a few months’ time, will place greater focus on student perspectives in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.