By Livia (Biomedical Engineering 2019/Member of Media Club)
Covid-19 has great impacts on our activities including our activities in University. Many jobs have been postponed or suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The university and school classes had to be conducted via online platforms to provide students with a means of studying at home in line with the policy of the government. This is also a means to resolve parents’ anxiety regarding their children’s safety.
Regarding the students of IULI, they are only permitted to visit IULI grounds for very important reasons or tasks and, prior to coming, their visit has to be reported to IULI. As students have no intention of visiting IULI during this pandemic, most students have returned to their homes in Jakarta, Kalimantan, and other regions of Indonesia.
As of this moment, students of IULI have been participating in online classes since March 16th, 2020 via the ZOOM application and will continue until the 1st of April or longer, depending on the procession of the pandemic. Even though we can conduct study activities via online, there are still some activities which just cannot be done, which have been forced to delay.
A Biomedical Engineering student of 2017, named Joyi states “I haven’t prepared for OFSE since, I also have projects for this semester, but I am planning to prepare during the midterm break. However, due to the covid-19 pandemic, I cannot really prepare OFSE since the project is delayed.”
Covid-19 is a big problem for the students who are preparing to go to Germany or Taiwan. There may be some difficulties in fulfilling the needed requirements, requested by Germany or Taiwan, considering both countries are also infected by Covid-19. Flights to many countries have been delayed or even canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, including the departures to Germany and/or Taiwan. This is where parents’ support is crucially important for the students.
Technische Universität Ilmenau, the German University, where most graduate students of IULI are studying, has been shut down and all research activities have been postponed.
“The thing is; all classes are already done and now it is time to do our thesis research”, said Kareem, a IULI student living in Germany..
The families of the students who are in Germany are worried but there is no definite answer about what might happen. All anyone can do is anxiously wait. The majority of people both in Indonesia and Germany have remained at home, quarantined, and the only place they are willing to go is the supermarket.
No one can tell for sure what will happen tomorrow. We can only do what
the best for us now and treasure it. As a wise turtle once said “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today
is a gift. That is why it is called present.”–
Master Oogway, Kung Fu Panda.