On Thursday 2nd of July 2020 PAU received a donation of 10 HP laptops from the Charity Edwards Trust for use by its students whose capacity to study had been hampered as result of the switch to online-only studies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Receiving the gifts on behalf of the University, Mr Franklin Wiggle, Director of University Relations & Development expressed the University’s gratitude on behalf of the students who would be direct beneficiaries of the largesse. Speaking to Mr Dimeji Edwards, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Charity Edwards Trust, he said, “your contribution means that some of our students, especially the ones on PAU’s Scholarship Fund, will now have better working tools as a result of your generosity. Imagine the look on their respective faces when they receive the laptops you have generously donated. It equally means you would have perpetually contributed to their successful university education at Pan-Atlantic University as a result of your gift when they eventually graduate”.
At the beginning of the lock-down, PAU immediately moved her students to the University’s e-learning platform. Within two weeks, they were receiving their full complement of classes online. Over time however, it became clear that the benefit of this has not been evenly spread: a number of our students (particularly those on scholarship – about 15% of the undergraduate student population) have been struggling since they don’t own personal computers. While they were on campus, this was not really a challenge as the University has a number of computer labs. Off-campus however, many of them have been struggling to follow the classes online using their mobile phones”.
The donation, would help tackle this challenge and the University hopes that other well meaning individuals and organisation will contribute to this effort.