Page 202 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)

seeking the right ideal format for the UT operational system . During this period of

time, there were two changes in student registration system that directly related
to the learning materials distribution system . Even it can be said that one of the

important considerations in underlying the changes in the student registration
system was the learning materials distribution.

In ~he first year of UT operation , in1984/1985, there was almost no
constraint in distributing the learning materials to the students. Student
registration was done once a year. The number of the student accepted in the

first year was 54.035 students out of approximately 260 .000 applicants. The

courses were offered in semester learning package for four Study Programs, i.e.
Economics and Development Study, Public Administration , Business
Administration , and Applied Statistics. Every semester, each of the Study

Programs offered five courses that were divided into two learn ing packages. The

first learning package contained three general courses (taken by all Study
Programs) , and the second learning package contained two courses of the
respective field of study. Thus, during the first year of operation, UT offered

only five different learning material packages per semester, consisting of one
general learning package and four specific learning packages for the Study

Programs. The total number of courses offered in the first year was eighteen
courses. The distribution of the learning material packages to the students was

carried out in two stages, i.e. in the beginning of the semester for the first

package and in the middle of semester for the second package.
The state-owned postal servic'e Perum Pos dan Giro (now PT Pos
Indonesia) has been the first institution cooperating with UT in the distribution of
the learning materials. The learning materials are assembled and packed in the

UT Head Office and distributed to selected Post Offices, in accordance with the
number of students registered in each region. In the first year, UT conducted

selection process for new students, so that UT have the information to provide

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