Page 185 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)

350,000 organisations in more than 150 countries. ISO 9000 is also widely used
by higher education institutions, one of which is Benjamin Franklin University - a

university implementing distance education systems (Pond, 2002). ISO Standards
have been adopted in Indonesia since 1992, and within the period of ten years,

more than 1,300 companies in Indonesia have received the certificates of ISO
9001/2 series. When an organisation is granted ISO 9000, they are recognised

that they have standards of quality management which are able to provide
assurance on the quality of their products and services. Educational services

may apply relevant ISO standards in service industry.
In the middle of 2004, UT initiates its efforts for ISO 9001 :2000 certification

in the management of learning materials distribution . The effort did not only
involve the core unit, i.e. the Learning Materials Service Centre but also other

related units which also dealt with the process of production and distribution of
the learning material packages. Hard work and strong commitment contributed by
all personnel concerned have lead to the recognition that the management

system of the learning material distribution has been consistently implemented

and met the ISO 9001:2000 standards. This recognition through ISO 9001 :2000
certification was finally awarded in March 2006. Improvement in the quality of
management in UT did not stand still following this recognition; the institution

keeps improving the quality of its management system in different areas of UT

core business processes. In 2006, UT strived to get certification of ISO
2001 :2000 for its academic development, which includes the development of
printed and non-print materials and the development of examination systems, and

distance learning services of the Regional Offices.

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