Studying Abroad amidst Covid-19 Pandemic: Learn with Steem [January 1, 2021]

---

Muhammad Zawil Kiram is one of the recipients of the Turkish Government’s Turkiye Burslari Scholarships from Indonesia. He arrived in Turkey two years ago to pursue a master’s degree in sociology at Marmara University in Istanbul. Zawil is an alumnus of the Sociology Study Program, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of Universitas Malikussaleh who graduated in 2018.

Before studying at Marmara University, he took a one-year Turkish Language preparation program called Türkçe Öğretimi Uygulama ve Araşterma Merkezi, as the instructional language at the university is Turkish. He was enjoying his second semester before the coronavirus broke out and on-campus teaching was suspended.

Turkish Government closed down schools and universities to enforce physical distancing which is considered as one effective measure to curb the spread of Coronavirus. Schools and university closures were deployed nationwide and study from home policy was enforced to make sure that the teaching and learning process takes place amid the Coronavirus crisis.

Even though the government planned to reopen schools in September, the initiative should be postponed due to the rising Coronavirus cases in the country. Turkey is one of the countries in the world with the highest number of Covid-19 cases. According to the latest data from www. worldometers.info, per 30 December 2020, there have been 2,178,580 people infected with Coronavirus in Turkey and at least 20,388 people have died.

To Unimalnews, Zawil stated that he has been studying online from home since the middle of March 2020. “In studying online, we use the online learning website provided by the university called uzaktan eğitim sistemi. In addition, we also use some video conferencing applications such as Zoom, Google Meet and Skype,” Zawil said.

Turkish Government has been supporting the students across the country by providing 8 GB of cellular data per month for every student. “With the support from the government and also from campus, the teaching and learning process run well so far,” he further added.

Besides studying online, Zawil also joined some extracurricular activities during the pandemic. In November, he completed a 10-week online course from Colombia University on Gender studies, and also a four-week online course on Gender, Family, and Society from the University Of Sussex, UK.

He was also among the best presenters for an international conference organized by the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Malikussaleh held at the beginning of November. Even though there are many seminar opportunities that he can attend virtually during the pandemic, Zawil is looking forward to being more active in joining various programs such as conferences and seminars where he can interact in person with other participants.

”There are many online seminars at the moment for sure, but it would be very different if you can attend directly. The atmosphere is just different,” Zawil added. That is why he hopes that the pandemic will end soon and everything can go back to normal again.

Zawil, who has published one book entitled “ Burung-Burung tak Bersayap (Wingless Birds), one e-book about study guide in Turkey, and some articles in international journals during his study in Turkey, expects to be able to finish his study in 2021. Besides Zawil, Siti Arifa Diana is another Unimal alumnus who is pursuing her master’s degree at Selcuk Universitesi in Konya. Siti also graduated from the Sociology Study Program, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences.[M]

---

---