The Covid-19 pandemic which led to the enforcement of the nationwide lockdown has set a rough ride as the national recovery progress took another backseat. Following the announcement of the “Ops Hantar Pulang Pelajar” initiated by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) which allows students to return homes to their families, the APU student welfare committees are devoted to ensuring that the safety and well-being of our students are not comprised. Therefore, the University has taken every necessary precaution and extended its hospitality to ensure students are safely returned to their respective homes.

Continuously to scale greater heights, APU took a step further by coordinating with the logistics team and scheduled a number of fully sponsored “back-to-hometown” trips via APU’s busses for our students, making trips across multiple states in the Peninsular Malaysia which includes Perak, Melaka, Johor, Kedah, Penang, Negeri Sembilan, and Pahang. International students who were stranded in their accommodation during the lockdown as well as students from the East Malaysia were also provided complimentary trip to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) where they can reunite with their families and love ones.

APU buses were also part of the fleet organised by Ministry of Higher Education to assist students from other universities to travel to their home town. The entire operation was conducted in accordance with instructions and guidelines from the MOHE with strict adherence to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Students are required to go through compulsory medical check-ups and Covid-19 Screening where necessary at APU’s Klinik Oceana. Body temperature was examined on all individuals before departure to prevent any possibility of infection. The seating arrangements in the buses have also been re-arranged to accommodate limited capacity while practicing social distancing. Hand sanitisers were also made available at the entry/exit points of every buses and usage of face mask is compulsory at all times. As part of the hygiene and cleanliness procedures, door handles, seats, and all common areas in the bus were also sanitised as well.

PU has also established a team of Safety Ambassadors who are made up of friendly, caring, and dedicated students and staff from various functional areas. They’ve assisted in educating and guiding the APU student community on the standard practices of social distancing and hygiene measures, ensuring everyone stays safe together at all times.

Apart from the SOPs, the University’s staff have also worked relentlessly to provide a positive impact to their student community and showed great teamwork in arranging transport, arrangement of food and drinks, communicating different embassies, contacting police officers to obtain travel permissions, provided money exchange services and even coordinated professional counselling sessions for those who were suffering from depression due to the pandemic.

Overall, their journeys back home were tracked in real-time by the management team. The students' journeys were also reported to the police in each district where they are headed to, which they proactively keep in touch with the students on a frequent basis to ensure everything was proceeding according to plan. This made it much easier for the parents of these students to welcome them home. It was heartwarming to see these students finally reunited with their families and love ones.