CSR UUMWiFi: A University’s Effort in Bridging Digital Divide among Rural Community

Abstract

As a response to the government effort to bridge digital divide and democratising access to the Internet, particularly in rural area, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) has taken a proactive step to provide free wireless internet connection for Sintok-Changlun community known as CSR UUMWiFi. It is the first local public university in Malaysia that provides such service as part of its corporate social responsibility. In this paper, an investigation towards CSR UUMWiFi was conducted with the aim to ascertain the level of awareness, satisfactions, and its importance to the community. To achieve that, a questionnaire survey (via printed and online) were conducted and distributed within the Sintok-Changlon areas. A total of 424 usable responses were collected through simple random sampling. Data from the questionnaire were analysed using several statistical analysis’s such descriptive analysis, correlation test, and chi-square test. Findings from the study reveal that majority of the users are Changlun’s local residents, particularly the young and well educated group. The service is rank highly in terms of its importance. Nevertheless, the level of satisfaction on the CSR UUMWiFi is still at a moderate level. Interestingly, the gender and level of education have significant relationship with internet browsing activity where female and those with bachelor degree and SPM have higher propensity to use the service. Some improvements and future works were proposed to ensure that the service is more reliable and can help to transform the socio-economic of the community.