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The Impact of COVID-19 on University Student Lifestyle - WHO?

written by Tan Jie Ying

For our context, we will be focusing more on the side of the university student’s perspective. During the coronavirus time pandemic, all of the university students experienced issues such as quarantining at home, attending online classes, and until now only some of them can go back to the university campus. The lifestyle of university students has dramatically changed due to the pandemic. As before the pandemic, the university students would be living in the dormitory of their university. Besides, they will join the university clubs, experience the facility, and learn face-to-face. For the first-year university students, they would be able to gain many new friends. However, during this Covid-19 pandemic, everything has changed. During the lockdown period, the university students were told by the higher authorities to stay at home and attend their classes online. The mode of education definitely changed to different levels and university students needed a lot of time to adapt to it.

For example, during the MCO ( Movement Control Order) period in Malaysia, the university students only learned through online, using platforms such as Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or Zoom. It was hard to communicate and get to know other students without meeting them physically. As a result, it was hard for them to find friends as well. Some of the university students also face the problem of their bad internet connection and a quiet space to study. Apart from that, undergraduate student, especially university student who was from the science stream, it was difficult for them to understand the tutorial session because they couldn't carry out any experiments in the lab. Therefore, a lot of university students felt bored and were not paying attention to their lecturers during online classes. Moreover, they would also not follow the timetable that has been assigned to them and play games at home as it is fun for them compared to watching their online lecture.

In the present day, some of the university students are allowed to go back to the university, such as the second-year students, and they would have experience living on campus after a whole year of online classes due to the pandemic which makes it their first time experiencing living in a university dormitory. Some university students need some time to adapt to it. This is because they need to change their lifestyle after the online class mode changed to face-to-face again. They would need to plan their timetable and make a good time arrangement while living thereby being independent. Besides, they will feel more familiar with staying at a dorm as they adapt to this lifestyle like the period before this where they spend their time and months staying at home.

However, the pandemic still isn’t over yet. The new normal of life has been never-ending too. What is the new normal life? For example, university students need to wear their face masks for every session of class to protect themselves from the pandemic Covid-19. They also need to wash their hands frequently and use hand sanitizer. In addition, they need to continue practicing the safe social distance at least one meter with others. This issue makes it difficult for them to make new friends as a lack of communication between the university students will definitely occur. Some activities of the club would also need to be canceled or limit the number of participants because close-contact and crowded situations will increase the risk to spread the Covid-19 easily. The facilities such as the gym room, library, the park and some places of the university also would also have to limit the number of students who can enter in order to avoid the crowd. All of this would likely make the university students prefer staying at their dorm compared to reading a book in the library or doing exercise like jogging in the park.

The schedules of university students like an exchange program to overseas or internships have certainly been disrupted. They will face challenges in rescheduling their timetable as well. The lifestyle of every university student has changed because of Covid-19 which made them lose their opportunity to learn overseas.

In conclusion, university student is affected by the pandemic Covid-19. Their lifestyles have changed drastically till this day. Before Covid-19, they were hardworking to learn and experience about their university’s life and also to pass their examinations well with flying colors. However, now they have lost their excitement to explore the university and study. The university students that study online are more likely to stay at home which might make them feel unmotivated to study and for those who were allowed to go back to university, might have lost their activeness as they start to adapt to stay in their dorm.

Reference:

Choong Pui Yee, (May 8, 2020). Covid-19: Impact on the Tertiary Education Sector in Malaysia. Retrieved from: https://penanginstitute.org/publications/covid-19-crisis-assessments/covid-19-impact-on-the-tertiary-education-sector-in-malaysia/