PERCEIVED EFFECTS OF CORONA-PHOBIA AND MOVEMENT CONTROL ORDER ON NIGERIAN POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS IN UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Corona-phobia and MCO on the Nigerian graduate students in the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The study was quantitative and descriptive survey in design. The population of the study was 380 graduate students in the UTM. A total of 191 participants were selected randomly as the sample for the study. The study used an online questionnaire for data collection. Its validity and reliability were 0.7 and 0.8 respectively. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation). After the analysis, the findings revealed that both corona-phobia and MCO have effects on the students because they resulted in hopelessness, fear and stigma coupled with affecting the educational undertakings of the students. It is thus recommended that the authorities of the institution should introduce online services, academic activities and programmes to enable continuity of the educational activities during the pandemic period and reduce redundancy, anxiety and depression among the students.