Governing Laboratory Education in the Post‐Pandemic Era: A Multi‐Level Governance Framework

ABSTRACT The COVID‐19 pandemic exposed profound governance challenges in laboratory‐based education, particularly in medical schools where practical training is essential for developing competent health professionals. Although existing studies have documented a range of pedagogical and technological adaptations, relatively little attention has been paid to the governance processes that shape how laboratory teaching is coordinated, regulated and enacted across multiple levels. This article advances a Multi‐Level Governance (MLG)—based methodological framework designed to guide future research on post‐pandemic laboratory education. Rather than presenting a full empirical study, the paper develops a structured methodological agenda—integrating macro‐level policy analysis, meso‐level institutional inquiry and micro‐level qualitative investigation—and includes a brief illustrative vignette from a Chinese medical university to demonstrate how the framework can be operationalised. The approach emphasises translation, interaction and feedback across governance levels and outlines methodological pathways for understanding how laboratory education can contribute to broader goals related to public health, educational equity and sustainable improvements in teaching quality. Ultimately, the framework aims to support comparative, longitudinal and multi‐level research capable of capturing the complexity of governing laboratory teaching in the post‐COVID era.