Since September, the arrival of Saaed from Pakistan and Max from Sudan has not been a pleasant experience for them to study in Universitas Padjadjaran (Unpad) and living in the dormitory, Bale Wilasa (Balwil) 5.

Bale Wilasa 5

Saaed, A Pakistani Doctoral student from Faculty of Agriculture (Faperta) and Alnazeer, A Sudan Doctoral student from Faculty of Animal Husbandry (Fapet) students who both received Kemitraan Negara Berkembang (KNB) scholarship shares his story on inconveniences living in Balwil 5. They question why they have to pay additional charges every month for security reasons.

“The international office says, we all the students will have to be giving to the security 100 (thousand rupiah) per month, ” said Saaed.

Alnazeer complained about the noise happening around Bawil that makes him can’t sleep at night and when he complained about it to the international office, and yet they didn’t do anything about it.

Student Identity

Student Identification Number (NPM) is an official sign that somebody is a student of the university and it’s a part of their student ID Card (KTM). In Unpad, KTM can be used for transactions and to access the university’s library, Kandaga.

“We spent 2 months, we have no access to wi-fi, and no student card, no official gmail” said Saaed.

Without official identity and user ID, they cannot activate the PINTAS (Padjadjaran Internet Access). They also do not have access to other facilities in Unpad such as journal websites and access to Kandaga, the university’s library.

Saeed complains, “We don’t have user ID and password so how we can access the Wi-Fi? It is the responsibility of the (Unpad) International Office to give us the provider.”

Officials Response

Attempts to interview the Head of the International Office and Director of Student Affairs have been made but no official response has been given by the Head of International Office regarding this matter.

Inu Isnaeni Sidiq, Director of Student Affairs (Dirkema) gave a response.

“I haven’t met the students yet so I don’t know what their problems are yet. I’ll contact the BIPA (Indonesian Language for Foreign Speakers) coordinator so the student can meet me, therefore I can know the problems they are experiencing in detail.”

Author : Eugene Irwanto Willim

Editor : M. Aziz Fitratama, Shakila Azzahra M, Zulfa Salman A