2018-06-06Staff Report 2 Albertina Nakale WINDHOEK – The International University of Management (IUM) has postponed the first semester examinations for a week due to its integrated tertiary system network technical failure that has been experienced over the past few weeks. The exams, which were originally scheduled to start on Monday, were postponed to next week Monday, June 11. The system failure negatively affected students as they could not access their portals and could not view their continuous assessment marks and timetables. Students could also not pay their outstanding balances at the finance department to sit for the exams and were told to make other alternatives by going to the banks to make deposits into IUM’s account. Aggrieved students who approached New Era expressed their frustrations, calling on the university to rectify the IT system so that they can access the portal and be able to sit for their exams. IUM public relations officer Meke Nambili confirmed that the IUM management made a decision to postpone the first semester exams for a week. She said the postponement of exams was in the best interest of students. She noted the decision to postpone exams was necessitated because the university had been experiencing IT technical hiccups. “These hiccups led to the malfunctioning of the integrated tertiary system (ITS) which affected, among others, access of students to the portal, entry of CA [continuous assessment] marks, borrowing of books and examination clearance,” she explained. She said it is worth noting that the decision to postpone exams for a week was taken in response to a request by students through the Student Representative Council (SRC). She added that this decision was taken at a meeting where students were represented by the SRC. According to her, all exams for all IUM students across its campuses have been postponed to next Monday, and all students were informed as soon as the decision was taken last week. “Our IT team worked tirelessly and very hard to restore the system. I can confirm that the IT network technical hiccups are now rectified and all students have been able to access their student portals since the end of last week. In addition, all students are now able to make payments at the finance department as well as get examination clearance before they can sit for exams,” she assured. On the other hand, she said the university is currently investigating the main cause of the sudden IT network technical hiccups. “Our students’ interests are of utmost importance as students are the backbone of the university. We therefore sincerely apologise for this inconvenience,” she said. 2018-06-06Staff Report 2
