PETALING JAYA: Bad internet connectivity in public universities has caused students to miss out on learning and resort to using their own mobile data for access.
Universiti Sains Malaysia Final year student Jessica Subramanian, 23, said that connectivity problems tend to happen at critical times, such as during exam periods and assignment deadlines.
“The interruptions can be frustrating, especially when we need reliable internet access for online tutorials and group discussions,” she said.
Jessica added that this has made it hard to keep up with studies and said that she hopes that all universities will have easy, reliable internet access by next year.
Similarly, recent Universiti Putra Malaysia Er Zekai graduate said that his hostel room was far from the WiFi modem, which caused him to have no access to the internet.
“For my university experience, I had to use my own data in my hostel,” said the 24 year old.
He said that when classes were conducted online during the pandemic, he could not catch the lectures at all because the internet connection was very poor.
“We needed to look for resources online, and a bad WiFi connection affected progress and made it more difficult to study,” he said.
Er added that the UPM campus is big, and many areas do not have adequate internet coverage.
Meanwhile, a second-year student from Universiti Malaya who wishes to be known as Chen said that the internet on campus is only good for documents.
“If it is for videos, the loading time will be very slow,” she said, adding that she relies on videos and online lectures for learning.
She added that friends from her hostel have also complained about slow internet speeds.
“Now, I only use my own mobile data because it is much faster,” added Chen.
She is glad that the government has picked up on the issue and hopes to get good WiFi by February during her exam season.
It was previously reported by Berita Harian where student unions have spoken up on the limited internet access, especially in universities' residential hostels.
