UoC Vice Chancellor highlights challenges faced by rural students during COVID-19

• Access to online learning difficult due to poor internet connections 
• Lack of personal access to appropriate computer technology
• Students struggling to meet rent, landlords demanding full payment 
• Students with disabilities challenged by lack of home-based facilities to suit special needs

University of Colombo Vice Chancellor Senior Professor Chandrika Wijeyaratne says that many of its rural based undergraduate students, from a total population exceeding 13,000, face many challenges, which are augmented by the university’s metropolitan location and high-risk status for COVID-19.

This, she says, is in spite of excellent support extended by University Grants Commission (UGC) and Ministry of Higher Education. The University of Colombo has provided uninterrupted teaching and academic instruction for the students through online education. 

The Vice Chancellor identified some of the most fundamental challenges faced by its students in a letter she sent to well-wishers and highlighted the following areas:

Problems with access to online learning due to poor internet connections in their locality (approximately 15%)

Lack of personal access to appropriate computer technology (approximately 18%)

Students having private lodging face an incredible problem with their landlords, who demand full payment of fees while not in residence. This category of privately boarded students as per the internal surveys possibly is near a 1,000 in number

Students with disabilities (80 in number) with very sparse home-based facilities to suit their special needs

“Many of our students are from predominantly farming communities with seasonal family income or from parental income less than Rs. 500,000 per annum. I am personally aware that these young people meet their city-based expenses through their own initiatives such as Uber Eats delivery and tuition classes – all having run dry with the shutdown.

The VC said that the academic staff of the UoC through their volunteerism have contributed to an audited ‘distress fund’ that was established centrally for students which made it possible to give a one-time payment of Rs. 5,000 each in April. The total amount collected exceeded Rs. 2,500,000.

She added that the UoC gets support from NSW Alumni, and ongoing counselling and mindfulness programs and have initiated an online survey on wellbeing with an internationally recognised alumnus.

She thanked the Senior Student Counsellor and team, and the Welfare Branch for their excellent coordination to do this needs assessment and respond as of now with limited resources.