The 2 nd International Conference on Inovations in Social Sciences Education and Engineering ( ICoISSEE ) August 07 th , 2021 THE URGENCY OF READINESS TO CHANGE MENTALITY IN IMPROVING HUMAN GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS DURING A PANDEMIC IN UNIVERSITIES Elfitra Azliyanti 1* , Purbo Jadmiko 2 , Linda Wati 3 , T. M Ryan Aulia Rf 4 1,2,3,4 Management Department / Faculty of Economic and Business, Universitas Bung Hatta, Padang Author’s email : elfitraazliyanti@bunghatta.ac.id ; purbojadmiko@bunghatta.ac.id ; l11nda@yahoo.co.id ; tengku.muhammad.ryan@gmail.com *Corresponding author : elfitraazliyanti@bunghatta.ac.id Abstract. Creating globally competitive human resources cannot be separated from the role of universities and lecturers as educators. The coronavirus disease or Covid-19 pandemic that has hit all countries in the world poses challenges in all lines and aspects of life such as health, politics, economy, tourism, and also especially universities institutions. This has an impact, especially on the lecture methods used, from face-to- face in class to distance learning or online systems. This unexpected and sudden change in the situation has an impact on uncertainty and readiness in mastering the technology that must be carried out. This study aims to identify and analyze how the urgency of readiness for change against Covid-19 in universities, such as in terms of the readiness of human resources (lecturers), innovation and creativity, the readiness of supporting technology and readiness the role of leaders to achieve and produce high-quality students with global competitiveness. The research methodology used in this research is explanatory research through hypothesis testing and consists of four hypotheses. The object and population in this study were lecturers at Bung Hatta University, Padang. The sampling technique used is purposive sampling with certain criteria, and the data analysis technique used in this study is SEM with the STATA 12 application. The result of the study three hypotheses are accepted and 1 hypotheses rejected. Keywords: readiness for change, mentality change, global competitiveness, change management, online systems 1. INTRODUCTION At the beginning of 2020, the world was shocked by the outbreak of Covid-19. The pandemic has hit all countries and challenged all aspects of life, especially universities. The Indonesian government announced the emergency status of the National Disaster in response to Covid-19 on March 14, 2020, and almost all campuses were locked down. Universities responded to this government policy by closing activities on campus and establishing online lecture methods using the internet. The occurring changes cause uncertainty, so universities must think deeply to face and adapt to this uncertainty. Some of the problems were the readiness of internet infrastructure, the readiness of lecturers to prepare online materials, innovations that must be carried out by lecturers during learning, and the readiness of internet quotas [5].