Critics expect much more from the Open University

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)