By Professor Dr Moy Foong Ming

In response to the decision of the Ministry of Higher Education in reviewing the start date of second semester due to the current COVID-19 situation, I would like to express my opinion as an academician and coordinator of a post-graduate program.

Since the Movement Control Order (MCO) started in March 2020, tertiary institutions have converted all teaching and learning to online format.

The semester 2 of 2019/2020 session had been carried out successfully despite some hiccups. The current semester (semester 1, session 2020/2021) is conducted much more smoothly and students with problems in internet access in their hometowns are allowed to stay in the campus and carry on with the online teaching and learning.

The universities are now confident and capable to conduct teaching and learning via the online platform in most disciplines except some clinical teaching and hands-on teaching involving mechanical manipulation, chemical and biological specimens.

However, this can be arranged where the theories are to be delivered online when the COVID situation is bad, and once the situation is under controlled, arrangements can be made to have students coming back to the campus in small groups to complete the hands-on teaching and learning.

Therefore, I do not see the rationale of delaying the start date of semester 2 of the current academic year. The COVID-19 situation should be the basis to consider if face-to-face teaching is to be resumed or to continue with online teaching.

Most established universities in the West have fixed this whole academic year to carry on with online teaching as they foresee that the COVID-19 situation may not be controlled completely.

Delaying the start date of second semester may not be possible for face-to-face teaching to resume and the Ministry of Higher Education should not be making decisions based on the very unpredictable COVID-19 situation.

From what we observed, the COVID-19 will be coming in waves before vaccination is widely available to the people.

The change or delay of the start date of semester 2 may pose problems to existing students especially those on study leave where they have to complete semester 2 and return to work on specific dates based on the current academic calendar.

Students taking study leave to join programs in semester 2 would also have already confirmed their leave from work based on the available calendar.

Similar for the undergraduates, if they are staying in their hometowns doing online learning this current semester, I don't see how the COVID-19 situation is going to affect them if they stay put in their hometowns and carry on with online learning for semester 2. As those staying in the campus, they just remain status quo.

Delaying the start date will affect not only the semester concerned, it will also affect the dates of future semesters.

I hope the Ministry of Higher Education will consider the above in making decisions that will affect thousands of undergraduates and postgraduates from both the public and private universities.

(Professor Dr Moy Foong Ming is Professor in Epidemiology at the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya.)