Page 203 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)

the exact number of the learning materials for every Regional Office. The
students can get the learning materials at the appointed post office after paying

the fees for tuition and learning materials. Students can then register themselves
to the respective Regional Office. After registering, they can establish a study
group with fellow students . Establishing study groups can be easily done

because students have similar courses taken every semester in each Study
Program .

In the second year, 1985/1986, the number of learning materials package
provided increased along with the increase in the number of semesters in

operation and the offer of new study programs . The number of Study Programs
grew from four in the first year to 26 in the second year (14 of them were regular

programs and 12 were teacher certificate programs) . The increasing number of
study programs resulted in more difficulties in distributing the learning materials

package to the students. Because the number and volume of the learning
materials increased , the appointed Post Offices needed larger spaces for storage

of the learning materials. The Post Office started to experience difficulties in
providing larger warehouses for the UT learning materials.

Finally, in the third year, 1986/1987, UT decided to change the learning
materials distribution system , by changing the registration system called "Sistem

Registrasi Baru" (New Registration System). In the new registration system , the
course offerings were no longer based on the semester package; instead, all

courses could be registered by the students in any semester offered .
Registration of new students was done not on annual basis but every semester.

The academic cycle was changed from the semester basis (every six months) to
the trimester basis (every four mqnths), so that UT could register new students

three times a year, and conduct examination also three times a year.
In accordance with the open characteristic of UT, the students are free to

decide and choose their courses each semester (with a maximum of 10 courses)

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