Page 175 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)
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UT has taken necessary measures in order to get accredited by BAN-PT
since 1996. Bearing in mind that UT is the only distance higher education
institution in Indonesia, UT has called on BAN-PT to develop special
accreditation instruments that fit the characteristics of distance higher education
institution. From 1996 to 1997, BAN-PT in collaboration with the UT Team
developed the necessary forms and instruments based on the outlines derived
from the principles of distance education administration by setting up ideal
assessment indicators for distance education practices. Snowballing discussion
which heated up during the process of the development of the accreditation
instrument was whether "we set up indicators which ensure a rank of an "A", or
"we are going to use the ideal assessment indicators that guide and promote the
quality improvement of Study Program administration at UT in the future". Based
on the spirit that UT intends to be one of the centres of excellence which is equal
to world class distance higher education institutions, it was decided that the
instrument developed should use assessment standards containing indicators of
ideal quality.
Using the accreditation instrument, UT called on BAN PT to conduct
assessment of UT Study Programs for accreditation, and in 1998, all S-1 Study
Programs in UT were accredited "B". The result of accreditation shall be valid for
five years so that UT should renew and resubmit proposal for accreditation in
2003. However, in line with the development of technology in distance education ,
the number of Study Programs in UT, and changes in BAN-PT, BAN-PT decided
to revise the accreditation instrument for higher education institution
implementing distance system developed in 1996-1997 above and the new
version was reformulated and completed in the middle of 2005. Therefore, at the
time of writing the present paper, UT has completed the process of filling out new
accreditation instrument for S-1 Study Programs. The Master and Diploma
programs, on the other hand, are now in the process of visitation by the
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