Some students contacted by MNA have expressed their concerns over a new pandemic prevention measure imposed by the University of Macau (UM) requiring all postgraduate students living on campus to declare their personal information and itinerary details before leaving the dormitory.
The university has announced in a ‘Postgraduate Dormitory Epidemic Prevention Entry and Exit Management Notice’ that for the safety of all dormitory residents under the current severe pandemic outbreak situation, all postgraduate students have to declare their personal information and itinerary details to the management company of the dorm before going outside campus, while each off-campus trip cannot exceed three hours unless the students complete an application to the school.
For going to places inside the campus, students must register their personal information, destination, and expected return time at the security office, and those who violate the regulations will have their points in the system for deciding room allocation deducted, and in serious cases will be required to move out of the residency.
To date, no confirmed COVID-19 case has been reported in the campus area of UM.
MNA has sent an email to the postgraduate house of UM to inquire whether they have communicated with students in advance before implementing this measure, with no reply received at the time this article was published.
Most of the students who stay on campus during the summer holiday are those non-local postgraduate students who have to conduct research and experiments or prepare for their final dissertations, while the very few undergraduate students living on campus now are also required to report their itinerary records every day to the school.
Gina Wang, a master’s student who lives in UM’s postgraduate residency during the summer, told MNA that she thinks this pandemic prevention measure is “troublesome” and “meaningless”.
Meanwhile, the master’s student expressed that most of the students who stay on campus now have to go out to the laboratory every day, and the pandemic prevention measures imposed by the school have caused unnecessary trouble for students.
Also, she indicated that even though UM can manage the entry and exit of students, there is no way for the university to manage the crowd gathering in the public area inside the dormitory and the pandemic transmission it may cause.
“Students will gather at the kitchens in the dorm to cook and eat, if one person in this group of people turns out to be a positive case, that person is enough to get everyone infected, ” Wong added.
An international student, who asked to remain anonymous, told MNA that the restriction measure has brought psychological pressure on students, and the university failed to conduct effective communication with students during the pandemic outbreak.
“Yes there is a pandemic, but nobody likes to be treated like they live in a prison. We don’t like being locked or restricted. It gives you the feeling that you are trapped and you have no freedom. To some extent, it feels like they are controlling us.” the international student said.
“Everybody wants to have the freedom to go wherever they want,” she stressed.
The student added that UM should communicate with the students when launching new pandemic prevention measures, especially for the international students who can only stay in Macau during the summer vacation because of the SAR government’s Customs entry policy.
“It wouldn’t be too difficult for the management to pass by each person’s room or call each person to ask how they are doing, to communicate about what the plan is and what the school is going to do,” she noted.
The international student said that she feels like “no one cares about them” in the university, and the only message she received from the school was to “threaten” people to get tested.
Another master’s student, who also asked not to be named, expressed that she thinks only asking the students to stay in their residency is useless for pandemic prevention because there are still many people who come to UM over the weekend for leisure activities and entertainment.
“If the school really wants to protect “the safety of all dormitory residents”, they should strictly control the entry and exit of other people from outside the campus, ” the student added.
