KOTA KINABALU: Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) has allocated more than RM1mil to make online studies easier for its underprivileged students. A total of RM1.25mil has been allocated for data plans and devices for B40 undergraduates at the university.
UMS vice-chancellor Datuk Dr Taufiq Yap said 1,928 students would benefit from the data plans. “As for devices such as laptops, these are for a total of 714 eligible students from the B40 group, ” he said.
He said these students comprised 619 from Sabah, 37 from Sarawak and 58 from Peninsular Malaysia. Yap said these funds are from the UMS students' welfare trust fund. “We started giving students the data plan assistance in phases since Dec 8,” he said.
He said as for the devices, students will get them once the required procedures are met. Yap said these are part of UMS’ six welfare and assistance programmes to help students.
Earlier, the university had spent RM20,000 for food bank programmes as well. “Other initiatives taken to lessen the burden of students was by not collecting college accommodation rental fees for a certain period,” he said.
(11 December 2020)
