COVID-19 pandemic: Non-quarantined residential college students’ perceptions of communicative importance

Abstract

The implementation of Movement Control Order (MCO) method to break COVID-19 chain to save the nation has affected the daily routine of the residential college students at the universities. Those who were not infected by the disease were categorized as the Non-quarantined students where they had to undergo certain rules and regulations during the crisis. This study aims to identify the perceptions of that the Non-Quarantined students at the residential colleges of a Malaysian technical public university towards communicational service provided during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 520 students residing at the residential colleges participated in the study. Five main aspects of communication at the residential college were studied: instant updates; platforms; availability of information; admin responses; and counselling service. The analysis conducted using Statistical Package for The Social Science Version 25.0 (SPSS 25) showed that the mean score for the highest aspect was on the instant updates (4.11) provided to the non-quarantined students during the Covid-19 crisis. The findings indicated that majority of the respondents were satisfied with the communication service provided where the mean score was 3.99. The respondent provided the lowest mean score (3.87) for the aspect of counselling service. Thus, this study would recommend that the residential colleges of the universities should upgrade the service of counselling sections and make them known to the students for them to utilize the services to the maximum.