STUDENTS from Adamson University’s College of Nursing and College of Pharmacy are protesting the university’s policy requiring them to have two gadgets while taking online examinations.

The student body said that not all could afford to have two gadgets and some students rely on mobile data to attend their online classes.

“An additional gadget will cost us twice the WiFi and data expenses for online classes. Accessibility to these resources was already a big issue since the onset of the implementation of online classes,” the students said in a statement.

“Now, there is this additional burden for the students and their families to find a way to have access to these as prerequisites to taking an exam,” they added.

Adamson University announced the new policy recently. The university also requires students to download the Respondus-LockDown browser designed to ensure that no cheating will occur during the exams.

However, several students reported that the browser causes technical malfunction and sometimes deletes local files.

They claimed that using the browser violates their privacy as it takes video and photographs of them.

The student body urged the administration of the university to be more compassionate in its policies during this time of the pandemic.

“While we recognize the need to formulate workarounds for the current new normal no one was prepared for, we believe that especially during a pandemic, opting for being humane and considerate towards the current situation of the students, teachers, and their families must be the primary course of action of those forming school policies,” the students said.

“A pro-student mode of learning should be developed and an overall culture of community and compassion for all the sectors in schools must be cultivated,” they added.