So I've posted this on reddit previously, and someone suggested me to post it here as well. And so here I am.
A little background: OUM has a continuous problem with their system where occasionally it fails to register the submissions of students' files (documents, videos, audio, etc.). And due to this issue, many students including me have had our marks deducted unnecessarily due to the university not receive our files. When appealed, OUM automatically assumes that it's the student's fault and dismisses the case.
TL;DR at the end of the post
And this time, shockingly, it happened when I was trying to apply to reassess my assignments due to having low marks. The system failed to register my application and hence, my assignments were not reviewed. I tried to create a ticket and informed the issue via the university's customer service called ECRM. And as always, they dismissed my case.
Since there was nothing I could do, I felt that I had the responsibility to address the issue on our OUM student Facebook group. Many students stated that they had the same problems as well (just like I mentioned previously). Others were shocked since they'd never experienced such issue.
Then, one of the students suggested that I should seek help from my Learning Centre (OUM has different branches across the country), and so I did. The staff gave me the email of the person in charge of the assessments of examination and assignments. So I emailed her and told her the whole story. Similar to ECRM, she promptly dismissed my case. And when I explained further, she never replied again.
So wrote another post to update my situation and warn my fellow students that they need to be extremely careful as such problem didn't just happen to me once, but several times.
Apparently, my post caught the attention of the university as the next day, one of the academic staffs and a self-proclaimed counsellor contacted me and said that she was aware of what I did. She further said that what I did was damaging the reputation of OUM and that regardless of what happened, I should deal with the university myself and not bring the problem to the public. I explained that my purpose wasn't to shame OUM nor damage its reputation, but to raise awareness of the issue so that other students wouldn't experience what I and several others did.
On the same day, my second post was removed by the admin, citing "false issue".
Then the day after, the admin removed my initial post, apparently, as demanded by OUM.
Additionally, I also found that my comments related to this subject on posts were removed as well.
Evidently, OUM is controlling the Facebook group and monitoring what students do or say and would silence anyone who attempts to criticize them. It's appalling and disgusting that an academic institution would act in such a political manner and to go as far as restricting the students' freedom of speech. As students, I strongly believe we have the right to comment our university. We pay for our student fees and deserve to be treated fairly. Silencing any criticisms and pretending nothing happened wouldn't solve the problem, and in the future, there will still be students who would fall victim into such problem.
TL;DR: My application for my assignment marks to be reassessed was not registered due to OUM's faulty system. I made 2 posts to address the issue on our OUM student Facebook group (the 1st one to address the main issue, the 2nd as an update). After being made aware, the university ordered the admin to remove both posts and my comments related to the subject on other posts.
The reason I'm making this post is to let other students be aware of such issue that OUM is trying very hard to cover it up, and also to let those who are considering to enroll to think twice before doing so.
University Open University Malaysia (OUM) is Silencing Me, Oppression happens in university too!