Critics expect much more from the Open University

JAKARTA (JP): The Open University (UT) marked its 10th anniversary yesterday but critics, including Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro, say much more is expected of it.

Critics said the Open University, which runs its courses using telecommunications, still retains the image of being a second- class college or an education of last resort.

Wardiman Djojonegoro, who attended the anniversary ceremony at the Jakarta Hilton Convention Center yesterday, said the university should be able to compete with other educational institutions in recruiting the best students.

"Our country's geographical condition and the increasing demand for high-quality lecturers makes the distance-learning method one of the best and, sometimes, only alternatives... the University is therefore obligated to improve the quality of its system," he said.

He acknowledged UT's significant role in reaching segments of the community that other colleges could not. In this regard, he said, the University has made major contributions to increasing and evenly dispersing access to a higher education.

Although 51 state universities and 1,100 private universities exist in Indonesia, not all regions are capable of providing a sound university education for high school graduates.

This situation makes the role of UT all the more important because it can reach most of the country's remote regions, Wardiman added.

UT Rector B. Suprapto said the university attracted not only high school graduates but also people already working. These 'returning students,' in fact, made up a large majority of its students.

Wan Usman, a staff member of the University, said some 95 percent of UT students are "marginal income" employees.

Eighty-seven percent of these employee-students are teachers, members of the armed forces and civil servants, 54 percent of whom obtain funding for the tuition fee from their respective institutions, he said.

In such a situation, even the slightest increase in tutorial fees will markedly cut back the demand for UT's services.

Tutors

"Therefore, it is quite easy to understand why private institutions are not attracted to tutoring UT students," Wan said, commenting on the University's lack of good-quality tutors lately.

UT students, he pointed out, could not afford the high tutoring expenses set up by private institutions.

Universitas Terbuka, consists of the schools of economics, social and political sciences, mathematics and science, and teaching and education.

It currently has some 200,000 students distributed throughout Indonesia and overseas. Tutoring and examinations for those living abroad are handled by the Indonesian embassies in the respective countries.

UT, which is among the most recently established state universities, originally based its module system on a similar method used in Canada. It presently has 32 units of Long Distance Studies Programs distributed across the country.

Irmal, from the University's public relations office, said UT has inducted 26,895 graduates over the last 10 years.

UT currently works in cooperation with the ministries of transmigration, agriculture, home affairs, religious affairs, the armed forces, state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia, Indonesia's official air fleet Garuda Indonesia, the national family planning board, the state post office, the national library and the Central Bureau of Statistics.(pwn)