![Deakin University Warrnambool campus international student Tara Racut is racing against the clock to finish her final assignment amid internet outages at home. Picture by Anthony Brady Deakin University Warrnambool campus international student Tara Racut is racing against the clock to finish her final assignment amid internet outages at home. Picture by Anthony Brady](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/154914734/4ec18625-c4af-480b-8c69-c54effa86e36.jpg/r0_281_5495_3383_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A Warrnambool international student is racing against the clock to complete her university degree because she cannot access her Optus internet following Wednesday's outage.
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American Tara Racut is in her fourth and final year of a Bachelor of Primary Education at Deakin University's Warrnambool campus.
She has had no internet at home since a national outage hit the Optus network on Wednesday, November 8, 2023.
A message on the company's website said there were planned outages daily at her home until November 19.
Ms Racut is attempting to finish a university assignment that accounts for 50 per cent of one unit, which she needs to pass to complete her degree. "This one in particular requires a lot of research," she said.
The student said she doesn't have a car so must travel to university by bus to work on the assignment, which is a round trip of 40 minutes, in between work commitments.
Ms Racut said the bus to the campus ran every 30 minutes in the mornings and every hour later in the day.
"Assuming the university is actually open because of the (school) holidays. You do have to time it very particularly," she said.
Ms Racut said the assignment was due on Friday, November 10, but had been extended to November 13 because of the lack of access to her home internet. "I'm tired of dragging it out. It's exhausting," she said.
"I go to work at an odd time so it's a bit difficult to really fully plan around it.
"(Because) I'm a night owl that's another difficulty with going to the library and getting the assignment done, I prefer to do it at home."
Ms Racut said she had also been unable to speak with her family back home in the US unless she used her mobile phone data.
The outage on Wednesday shut down South West Healthcare's switchboard services at its Warrnambool, Camperdown and Lismore hospitals, while some businesses were unable to process EFTPOS transactions.
Optus has been contacted for comment.