Businesses at Makerere came to a standstill after the Internet predicament hit Uganda’s oldest university for the past three weeks.
Several departments at the university have not had internet connectivity for the last 3 weeks after the break of an optic fibre cable that connects them to the main server.
The most affected areas are Mountain Resource Center, Philosophy Resource Center and Department of Journalism and Communication.
Other areas sharing the internet catastrophe are department of Literature, department of History and other offices housed near main building and college of humanities and social sciences – Chuss.
Fourth year students from the department of Journalism claim they have for three weeks missed classes that require internet connection.
On Thursday last week, students put on pressure the University internet providers The Directorate for ICT Support (DICTS) to explain the reason why they are not connected to both wireless (Wi-Fi) and Ethernet cable internet connections.
Joanitah Asiimire, a fourth year journalism and communication student said that their lecturers have now resorted to teaching multimedia and online journalism in theory for lack of internet in their multimedia labs.
However, DICTS calmed down the angry students saying they are handling the issue because they had contacted the responsible authorities in the affected areas but students are continuing to miss classes for lack of internet.
But when Cyclone Times contacted Prof Edward Kirumira, the principal of CHUSS said that he is aware of the problem but the college does not have money to fix the broken optic fibre cable.
“With this new financial policy, college heads [principals] no longer receive money to handle such issues but I have written to the centre about the problem I have at Chuss,” the principal said.
Students leaders also condemned the problem saying its near examinations time.
“It is so unfortunate because this is the time students need Internet for preparation of exams, we are engaging DICTS and our college authorities to see the problem fixed, said Namuganza Florence, GRC school of Languages, Literature and Communication.
She also added that concerned authorities should find an immediate solution to resolve this crisis because internet is a necessity for academic students research.
Early this month, most wireless network connections at halls of residences and university quadrangles had their passwords changed for unknown reasons making majority of the students unable to access them.
Makerere university internet connectivity project is currently funded by Sida, aimed at strengthening national research capacity in developing countries. However, this project is soon to expire.
