Higher education institutions have taken various forms over the ages to serve the functions of assaying and disseminating knowledge and practice. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted these forms and functions by challenging entrenched governance, teaching and research, and financing and operational models. This article presents the Higher Education in Emergencies Domains (HEED) model for the analysis of plans, policies, and practices, which can be used to support institutional stakeholders as they seek to recover from, prevent, and prepare for future disruptions. Developed over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the HEED model delineates and informs the drafting of pandemic plans, policies, and practices; longer term assessment of institutional resilience as a result of the pandemic experience; and the development of broader resilience to future disruptions to higher education through prevention, preparation, response, and recovery planning. These considerations will be discussed in light of institutional and system resilience, and ‘good’ forms and functions.