More than a year has passed since COVID-19 hit Singapore. As a result, activities such as overseas exchanges — commonplace before the pandemic — were cancelled, impacting the overall student experience.
But as BIZBeat found out, there could yet be a silver lining in the dark clouds. Alumna Adelene Tan (EMBA 2021), BBA Year 3 A. Akshara, and Philip Lennhammer (CEMS Term Abroad, HKUST), who spent a semester at NUS earlier this year, discuss their study journey.
Q: What was the impact of the pandemic on you as a student?
Adelene: Before the pandemic, I travelled overseas with my classmates to Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, New Delhi, Shenzhen and Shanghai. We visited companies there and learnt about their businesses and how they competed and innovated. It was a truly immersive experience, and we experienced each city’s cultural and business context. Unfortunately, after the pandemic, we could not travel and missed our Sydney and Tokyo learning trips.
Akshara: As someone who enjoys physical participation in classes, the online delivery of courses at NUS seemed like uncharted waters. I missed being able to voice out and discuss in a class.
Philip: Part of student life is meeting new people, partying, eating, going to museums, training together and all of that. For instance, I like to try new restaurants, and I usually would go with a group, everyone orders their food, and we try one another’s dishes. That is something that has been very hard these days.
Philip (in bottom screen) connecting in to his hybrid class
Q: Is it all doom and gloom for you, or is there something positive out of the current situation?
Adelene: I attended an entrepreneurship course taught by a Chinese university from the safety of my home without having to incur travel expenses. With my schedule, it would have been difficult for me to attend this course even in pre-pandemic times, so I am grateful for the online learning opportunity. Work-from-home arrangements also allow people to spend more time with their family members with reduced commuting time.
Akshara: NUS Business School’s hybrid-teaching style allows us to regain the in-class experience wherever possible.
The School also facilitated class discussions and group formations via the LumiNUS web platform. Forum threads were created for us to provide our viewpoints on the class material and reach out to other students if they are looking for project group members.
Akshara (in black mask) during her class
One silver lining of the current situation is that we can engage and connect from anywhere! As most classes had a default online mode, I could take on more activities such as additional internships and assignments. In addition, I could still attend classes due to the time saved on commuting between places.
We are also able to hear from industry experts all over the country and the globe. This was not easily achievable before the pandemic, where most guest speakers had to be physically present in class.
Philip: I always try to see how I can improve myself. I am studying Mandarin, Japanese and a bit of conversational Cantonese. I am also improving my programming skills in Python. I am occupying myself with things I wanted to do but never took the time to do, such as cooking. I can proudly say that I can use a whetstone to sharpen a knife and make a pretty nice vegetarian Mapo Tofu.
We can’t always change the way things are, but we can do the best we can!
