Page 12 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)

Preface

The book Universitas Terbuka A Journey toward a Leading Open and
Distance Education Institution 1984-2008 has been written by administrators
and members of staff of Universitas Terbuka (UT) who have significant

professional experience with UT. It comes to no surprise that the book has been
written in great detail, and it has included detailed account of the development of
the UT during the period since its establishment in 1984 until the present time

and where it is going in the future. Readers are expected to have a better
understanding of what UT or distance education is, how it operates, what its
educational foundations are, and how it has developed and will continue to

flourish in serving the citizens in the future. All of this information is presented in
fourteen chapters which can be summarized as follows.

Chapter 1 presents historical facts on the events around the birth of UT.
The founders of the UT were decision makers in the Directorate General of

Higher Education , who were preoccupied with the effort to address the problems
of low participation rate in higher education in the 1980s. The government set

the target to increase the level of participation rate in higher education and
empower the university to become the bridge between science and technology
and public demand. Higher education is expected to function as a national tool

for improving and developing the quality of life of Indonesian citizens.
Conventional approaches to higher education was considered inadequate to meet
the target, so investment in educational technology was preferred to allow for the

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