hunter-killer
Member
The NTU administration has had a reputation amongst students for neglecting undergraduate welfare and experience, even alumni who have graduated in the past can attest to it. The only semblance of welfare we receive is the occasional '10 tips and tricks to deal with covid stress' emails. Whenever students bring up an issue, the response would be to outright ignore it, or if you are lucky enough to receive a tone-deaf corporate response with blanket statements without elaborations. I guess that for many students, the biggest gripe we have about the administration is their inability to provide timely, meaningful and actionable communication.
Glaring issues that have been a mainstay in NTU for decades are still in full play today, and I will elaborate on them below in no particular order.
Shuttle bus services
To address the 'it's a privilege not an entitlement' crowd, take a look at this corporate magazine published by NTU, aimed at attracting potential undergraduates. It clearly advertises 'Internal shuttle bus services' as one of the various student services. Shuttle bus services are an entitlement to undergraduates, and the cost of running such services are included in our fees.
Alumni who have graduated over a decade ago can attest to the fact that our campus shuttle buses are inefficient, irregular and underregulated. The number of campus buses are in short supply with irregular bus arrival intervals. We can wait for as short as 5 minutes, or up to 30 minutes with no inbetween. Students over the years have been sending feedback to the school about such irregularities but the same issues are still here after decades. Sure, it's not something that can be solved easily, but I'm pretty sure that it doesn't take decades 9and decades more) to fix them. For the 'you complain, but what solutions do you have?' crowd, let it be clear that the onus is on NTU to solve such problems as it is a basic service advertised to attract students, not us undergraduates.
Last year, NTU introduced a ridiculous directive that disallowed standing on campus buses to 'reduce crowding', but failed to increase the flow of buses to stem the overcrowding at bus stops. Students had to crowd at bus stops and miss 3-4 buses before they could get onto one. For the 'but you can still walk, don't be a XXX' crowd, yes we can still walk, but it does not solve the root problem that NTU should be working on.
In 2019, NTU cancelled heartland shuttle buses under the guise of 'low ridership'. Students who have used any of the heartland shuttle buses can attest to the sheer volume of students arriving early to snag a spot on one of these highly prized transports. Now, external shuttle buses were not advertised on their corporate magazine, but this move clearly shows how much the administration cares about their students.
STARS server/results release technical failures
For the non-NTU students, STARS refers to our semesterly affair of registering for courses. This course registration exercise is the backbone of our undergraduate degree and many things weigh heavily upon it. Students are allocated a time and date where they can register for their courses, and with a single click, your fate is more or less sealed for the semester. Whether or not you get the courses and index numbers you painstakingly planned for is dependent on how fast you click the button compared to your peers. The result of whether you are able to squeeze all your courses in within 2 or 3 days of the week and save on transport monies and time would be dependent on this one click. The result of whether you are able to enroll in a course of your interest, or whether you will be able to fulfil your major or minor requirements is also dependent on this one click. In other words, this course registration exercise is one of the most stressful periods of our semester.
But it's not that simple. The server that manages the STARS system is archaic, failing and is unable to manage the sheer load during the course registration exercises. NTU IT staff confirmed that the system consists of 'ageing hardware and obsolete technology stack' which is a laughingstock for a university that claims to be one of the top universities in the world (see e-mail snippet furnished below).
A lot more at https://www.domainofexperts.com/2021/07/why-are-ntu-students-so-outraged-at.html
Glaring issues that have been a mainstay in NTU for decades are still in full play today, and I will elaborate on them below in no particular order.
Shuttle bus services
To address the 'it's a privilege not an entitlement' crowd, take a look at this corporate magazine published by NTU, aimed at attracting potential undergraduates. It clearly advertises 'Internal shuttle bus services' as one of the various student services. Shuttle bus services are an entitlement to undergraduates, and the cost of running such services are included in our fees.
Alumni who have graduated over a decade ago can attest to the fact that our campus shuttle buses are inefficient, irregular and underregulated. The number of campus buses are in short supply with irregular bus arrival intervals. We can wait for as short as 5 minutes, or up to 30 minutes with no inbetween. Students over the years have been sending feedback to the school about such irregularities but the same issues are still here after decades. Sure, it's not something that can be solved easily, but I'm pretty sure that it doesn't take decades 9and decades more) to fix them. For the 'you complain, but what solutions do you have?' crowd, let it be clear that the onus is on NTU to solve such problems as it is a basic service advertised to attract students, not us undergraduates.
Last year, NTU introduced a ridiculous directive that disallowed standing on campus buses to 'reduce crowding', but failed to increase the flow of buses to stem the overcrowding at bus stops. Students had to crowd at bus stops and miss 3-4 buses before they could get onto one. For the 'but you can still walk, don't be a XXX' crowd, yes we can still walk, but it does not solve the root problem that NTU should be working on.
In 2019, NTU cancelled heartland shuttle buses under the guise of 'low ridership'. Students who have used any of the heartland shuttle buses can attest to the sheer volume of students arriving early to snag a spot on one of these highly prized transports. Now, external shuttle buses were not advertised on their corporate magazine, but this move clearly shows how much the administration cares about their students.
STARS server/results release technical failures
For the non-NTU students, STARS refers to our semesterly affair of registering for courses. This course registration exercise is the backbone of our undergraduate degree and many things weigh heavily upon it. Students are allocated a time and date where they can register for their courses, and with a single click, your fate is more or less sealed for the semester. Whether or not you get the courses and index numbers you painstakingly planned for is dependent on how fast you click the button compared to your peers. The result of whether you are able to squeeze all your courses in within 2 or 3 days of the week and save on transport monies and time would be dependent on this one click. The result of whether you are able to enroll in a course of your interest, or whether you will be able to fulfil your major or minor requirements is also dependent on this one click. In other words, this course registration exercise is one of the most stressful periods of our semester.
But it's not that simple. The server that manages the STARS system is archaic, failing and is unable to manage the sheer load during the course registration exercises. NTU IT staff confirmed that the system consists of 'ageing hardware and obsolete technology stack' which is a laughingstock for a university that claims to be one of the top universities in the world (see e-mail snippet furnished below).
A lot more at https://www.domainofexperts.com/2021/07/why-are-ntu-students-so-outraged-at.html
