JOHOR BARU, Oct 7 — Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) is providing free internet data to its new students in an effort to help them attend lectures and tutorials that had to be done online due to the spike in Covid-19 cases.

Its deputy vice-chancellor (Student Affairs), Prof Durrishah Idrus, said the assistance had been provided to the first semester students for the 2020/2021 academic session, mostly from the B40 group, since June this year.

She said they were given 10 gigabytes of data quota per month with unlimited access into websites and applications such as Zoom, Cisco, Webex, and UTM e-learning, which can be used for two months.

"More than 6,500 eligible B40 students are expected to benefit from this assistance. Under its first three phases, it has benefitted 2,500 students. It is now entering the fourth phase,” she told a press conference here today.

She said apart from the internet data plan, the university through its UTM Prihatin initiative also provides various other assistance including financial aid and laptops to its students in need.

Meanwhile, Durrishah said a total of 8,177 new students pursuing first and post-graduate degrees are scheduled to register from October 10 to 13.

"They will only be required to register online and need not come to the campus. The student orientation week, which is initially scheduled for October 11 to 14, will also be conducted online,” she said, adding that UTM is always prepared to help necessary assistance to the student during the Covid-19 pandemic. — Bernama