UNIVERSITI MALAYA
University
of Malaya from Above
integral to all aspects of life , and so now operates to advance the best approaches to UM ’ s ever-expanding needs so that it may move and adapt as an institution in the globally-connected digital environment .
She says : “ Due to the challenges to our norms and expectations , the world is not as it was . The pandemic has driven us to a place where learning will become ever more borderless , and since everything is online in terms of information , the potential for this to become universal is definitely there .”
UM ’ s first computerisation project began back in 1996 , and kept incrementally developing and expanding until 2017 . And then , due to COVID , the process of digitalisation was propelled to transform the
“ A STUDENT CAN LIVE WITHOUT WATER , BUT THEY CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT WIFI ”
ASIAH ABU SAMAH DIRECTOR OF ICT , UNIVERSITY MALAYA university at their highest rate yet , as UM was forced to operate almost entirely online by the fallout .
Abu Samah says : “ We were quite prepared as a team in terms of handling these requirements , be it for the people who would support the IT systems , or in terms of establishing and honing the infrastructure , and even when reaching out to the remotereluctant in the university ’ s community . The pandemic has taught us to expect the unexpected in relation to demand for services , as well as the importance of being able to act quickly . Institutions need a scalable and efficient emergency plan to continue providing uninterrupted services in situations like this . Moving forward , in line with UM ’ s strategic plan , technological
350 May 2022