In this time of pandemic, universities must think about well-being of students, staff and public, while still sustaining and upholding the quality of academic programmes
Khairuddin says internally, a university must have very strong IT department and infrastructure.
THE Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the nation’s education in ways never seen before.
Schools and universities had to be closed to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Online teaching and learning, which many took for granted for many years, suddenly became the norm.
“I think Covid-19 came quite abruptly, and people were caught by surprise.
“I think most of us were not really prepared at that time – and higher education was of no exception.
“We had to face it, even though we had not anticipated it, and the impact had been quite significant,” said University College of Technology Sarawak (UCTS) vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Khairuddin Abdul Hamid in an interview with thesundaypost in Sibu.
Prof Datuk Dr Khairuddin Abdul Hamid
‘There were previous initiatives’
In this respect, he recalled the introduction of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in the 1990s, and a number of flagship applications that accompanied it – one of them being the ‘Smart School’ initiative, which came into being in the middle of that decade.
“It was actually on how to integrate information and communications technology (ICT) into our school system in term of managing the curricula, helping teachers manage their delivery of content and also getting students, as well as the school community, to adopt ICT.
“It was a good idea where initially, it had 88 pilot Smart Schools up for setting-up as part of the grand master plan, ‘Vision 2020’,” he remembered.
The implementation, however, was met with lots of challenges such as Internet access – or rather, the lack of it – and also telecommunication issues, observed Khairuddin.
“Moreover, the readiness of teachers was not there as they were not trained beforehand to be able to adapt to this project.
“The hardwares and the softwares were fast-becoming obsolete, and not to forget, the high cost involved. Eventually, the project was stopped in 2003 – only to be followed by SchoolNet,” he added.
A view of the UCTS campus in Sibu, where the activities have changed because it now has lesser students on campus.
The idea behind SchoolNet was to have 10,000 schools nationwide be connected to the Internet.
The challenge this time, said Khairuddin, was content limitation. He stressed the high importance for the content to be ready, the teachers to familiarise themselves with it, and the school-children to be equipped with the relevant devices, in order to attain viable delivery.
In 2010, just like its predecessor, SchoolNet was discontinued and was later replaced by BestariNet.
Khairuddin said the intention was to roll it out across the country using 4G network, but the restricted connectivity in Sabah and Sarawak was only noted later on.
“After going through Smart School and SchoolNet, the teachers needed to undergo another round of training, making it very stressful for them.
“That’s why if you were to ask me whether we should have been ready for Covid-19 or not, in terms of online learning, personally we should have been ready in view of the Smart School, SchoolNet and BestariNet experiences.
“These were all digital platforms, but unfortunately, because of ‘lessons not learned’, we had to start from ground zero again when Covid-19 struck.”
File photo shows students undergoing discussions at UCTS library.
Khairuddin also said with the current technology, online learning should be fully available to everyone without any need for ‘a big national-level project’.
“Nowadays, people can just use Zoom, Google Classroom and many other kinds of applications that they can deploy immediately, without having to establish national-level initiative.
“We’re lucky because the current technology allows lecturers and teachers to conduct online teaching without having to wait for any special project or platform,” he pointed out.
Not without its challenges
Every university must continue to play its key role of providing students with relevant, up-to-date and industry-driven programmes, says the professor.
Nonetheless, Khairuddin said everyone – the lecturers or teachers, and the students – must adapt to the new norms of teaching and learning.
“The movement restriction and standard operating procedures (SOP) have changed the work culture, where staff members work from home.
“These are the new norms, which the people have been getting familiar with over the past one year. This said, the key component of the new teaching and learning environment is still the IT infrastructure. Internally, a university must have very strong IT department and infrastructure, and the students must have access to the Internet, even at most minimum of coverage,” he said.
For UCTS students from the rural areas with limited or no access to Internet, they had been advised to come to the campus in Sibu so that they would have Internet connectivity for learning, said the professor.
For UCTS students from the rural areas with limited or no access to Internet, they are advised to come to the campus in Sibu so that they would have Internet connectivity for learning.
Another challenge in terms of conducting online learning and teaching was to maintain discipline.
In this regard, Khairuddin realised that there were students who would just log in for attendance, but end up doing something else.
“It is not easy to monitor remotely and this boils down the students’ own self-discipline.
“As a university, we must manage our lecturers in terms of the way they deliver the lessons and assessments online so that the quality of education would not be compromised.
“This is not easy because the kind of examinations given to students would be different. “Many are not used to open-book examinations and I think overall, Covid-19 has changed the ecosystem of education.
“So, universities must think of the safety of students and staff as well as the public, and at the same time, sustain and uphold the quality of the academic programmes.”
Another issue was parents complaining about having to pay the same amount of fees when their children were not on campus, using the on-site facilities.
On this, Khairuddin believed that most universities, including UCTS, had given discounts.
“I think as far as UCTS is concerned, so far the parents and the students are quite happy with this arrangement.”
Different way of thinking
Khairuddin says the likelihood of fresh graduates finding it hard to land any job after leaving university is there.
Asked about the impact of Covid-19 on graduates’ employability, Khairuddin said the likelihood of them finding it hard to land any job after leaving university was there, though he had yet to see any case that could indicate this.
“Even the current employees have difficulties in maintaining their jobs – who’s to say it wouldn’t be more difficult for the new graduates?
“Thus, I think the fresh graduates would have to think of different ways; perhaps, initiate online business or services.
“I think we could really see the impact of Covid-19 on graduates’ employability by next year and hopefully by then, the economy has slowly recovered.
The road ahead
Vice-chancellor: UCTS has to be more prudent and really look into cost-effectiveness in running the university.
Khairuddin said the challenge for universities like UCTS in this time of the pandemic would be managing the expenditure.
“We have to be more prudent and really look into cost-effectiveness in running the university.
“Furthermore, the activities have changed because we have lesser students on campus.
“Now, our research and development programmes have to be readjusted – due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have a very limited number of joint research projects with industries and foreign partners.
“Conferences and forums are now being carried out online.
“Our marketing department also needs to adapt to the changes as we can neither conduct roadshow nor go to schools to carry out briefings. It’s more on digital marketing right now,” he elaborated.
Nonetheless, Khairuddin stressed that every university must continue to play its key role of providing students with relevant, up-to-date and industry-driven programmes.
“They need to be of high quality, of course, bolstered by the input from and the cooperation with industries.
“Nevertheless, the core function of every institution of higher learning now is not just producing graduates to cater to the needs of industries, but also to reflect the level of knowledge, maturity and professionalism of the citizens of this country.
“People would regard a country with good education as one with high-quality human capital and thus, this would enhance the country’s reputation worldwide,” said the professor.
Photos provided by the UCTS for this article were taken during pre-Covid-19 times.