KINGSTON, Jamaica— University of Technology (UTech) students are growing increasingly frustrated with the institution’s online portal, which they say has left them struggling with “a complete mess” of issues including choosing modules, missed classes and quizzes, and late access to timetables among other problems.

“If I knew that at UTech, this whole process would have been like this, I wouldn’t have listed it as an option, I would probably have gone to UWI if I knew— it’s that bad,” a nursing school student told Observer Online.

Pupils who spoke to the Observer did not wish to share their names but called for the portal to be updated with urgency, while the university says it is awaiting resources to complete upgrades.

“They are raising the tuition, and the portal is still not working, they need to fix the portal! Tuition gets [more] expensive and the website is not really changing, so it’s like they are taking all this money from us to do what?!” a Business Administration student exclaimed.

She detailed the process of choosing classes for new and returning pupils.

“When you are registering, the first thing you have to do is pay your [enrollment commitment deposit], once you pay your ECD, you’ll be able to select your modules. Now, that was the hard part,” she explained.

The business admin student continued, “When you’re selecting your modules, because it is a lot of us, the portal always crashes, I had to wait two days to select my modules… So once I was able to get on the portal, most of the classes are full, and you don’t exactly get to choose times that are suitable for you.”

She clarified, however, “Once you’re able to select your courses, everything becomes easy, you confirm your timetable, you pay a portion of your fees or everything, and you get access to your timetable and Moodle.”

Despite her explanation, others said that their issues didn’t resolve nearly as easily.

“Well, this is my third year, and it was the worst,” an Environmental Science student explained. “The portal was down for over a week. And then, when you do get on, it kicks you off. When you start registering for your classes, it says that it’s full, even though the capacity is saying zero.”

The Environmental Science student, who hails from rural Jamaica, said she had to visit UTech in person to try to resolve the issue.

“You have to come up to school, join this long line weh bend up like ‘S’ at admissions. And when you finally reach, they’re going to say that they can’t assist you. That’s like foolishness,” the student said, adding that she eventually reached out to a programme director who assisted her by contacting lecturers individually to secure a space for her.

When the Jamaica Observer spoke to UTech Student Union President, Percival Roberts, he indicated that the body was aware of the issue with the crashing portal, which had peaked during the period slated for choosing classes in summer.

Roberts said following meetings with university management, the issues were straightened out.

When contacted, UTech, which is considered the country’s premier STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) higher education institution, explained that a firewall issue was behind recent challenges.

“We are aware of the issues some students recently experienced with system access, including difficulties selecting modules and viewing timetables. In late August, during the peak of the enrollment period, the University experienced a major IT disruption caused by the failure of our firewall, a critical component of our IT infrastructure. This resulted in temporary instability of the registration system,” said UTech in a statement to the Observer.

It added that the incident had underscored the “urgent need to modernise elements of its ageing IT infrastructure.”

“We are actively engaging with the Government of Jamaica and other partners to secure the resources necessary for these upgrades,” it said.

The university maintained that in the meantime, it had implemented a system of support for students to offset any interruptions to their studies, including extended deadlines for module selection, and expanded class spaces (with additional spots created in modules that were full or nearing capacity). Also provided was access to online learning resources and ongoing work on both IT and physical infrastructure to reduce the likelihood of future disruptions.

The school said the last day for registration without penalties was also extended, providing students on payment plans with more time to meet requirements.

UTech explained that the majority of students have now completed registration and commenced classes.

“The few remaining cases involving registration challenges are being addressed on a case-by-case basis, with direct assistance provided to affected students. Students have been kept informed throughout the process via online meetings and official email updates,” UTech said.

The students maintained however, that their portal worries had not started this semester, or even this year.

When Observer spoke to UTech Alumni, a male alum who read for a Bachelor’s Degree in Pharmaceutical Technology in 2016, stated “the biggest challenge was the technology that the school of technology has, with the system always crashing.”

The graduate continued, “In my day, everybody was allowed to select at one time, so when registration used to open, everyone would flood the site, and it’s always crashing. If you do end up going into the system to select, you have to select your modules first and then generate a timetable. This is where the problem lies because it takes a long time to generate timetables, and then sometimes it would just crash, and you have to start all over; and when you start all over, you can’t get into the system.”

One woman who graduated with a degree in the pharmaceutical field in 2020 told us that her experience was smooth and she had no complaints.

She highlighted, though, that the courses she would have done were very specific, so there was less competition for them.

Several students who spoke to the Observer maintained that while they enjoyed their studies, the issues with choosing modules had left them with a very bitter taste.