Page 24 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)

private universities were approximately 300.000 students. The government
targeted that by the end of Repelita IV the number of the students enrolling in

both government and private universities could reach 1.5 million students. In
addition, the university had to serve as the bridge between science and

technology and public demand . Thus higher education functioned as a national
instrument for improving and developing the quality of life of Indonesian people .

To increase student participation rate from 700.000 to 1.500.000 in five-
year period, the government needed another type of approach , because with

conventional approaches to higher education , the target was unlikely met.
Another consideration was that investing in additional academic staffs and

classrooms would be difficult, because it would take a lot of time. Finally,
investment in the educational technology was preferred. Teaching and learning

through distance education had been used in Australia and New Zealand for a
long time. The universities that have especially developed using this approach
have also proved to be successful in South Africa, Britain, Thailand , and

Pakistan .

At that time, Indonesia was not a new comer in distance education.
Education through correspondence had been carried out to improve the teacher

quality, and education by the use of radio had also been used by Department of
Agriculture for the farmer groups. Besides , Bogor Agriculture Institute (lnstitut

Pertanian Bogor I IPB) along with Directo-rate General of Higher Education had
conducted distance education program by means of satellites to improve the
quality of the university lecturers in the eastern part of Indonesia. This DE

program was well-known as Satellite Education System (Sistem Pendidikan

dengan Sate/it! Sisdiksat). launched in June 1984. Teaching Certificate V
Program also used DE approach . All of those experiences have been useful
lessons in establishing distance higher education (DHE) that needed less

teachers and classrooms.

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