Page 25 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)

Academic staffs needed for writing course materials and delivering tutorials
could be provided by other universities without interrupting their main activities.

The Regional Offices needed by this new university could also be borrowed from
the local universities. To establish cooperation between the distance higher

education institution that would be founded and the established universities in
Indonesia, The Minister of Education, Prof. Nugroho Notosusanto, invited Rectors

of state higher education institutions to attend to the presentation of the new
university described by the Preparation Committee of the Development of

Universitas Terbuka (UT) . Additionally, he also addressed them to support the UT
operations by means of providing lecturers who were needed to write modules

and to deliver tutorials. He also appealed to open their libraries for UT students
and to house UT Regional Offices. Except one, all Rectors agreed to help UT

such as asked by the Minister.

Implementation of the Idea of Founding
Universitas Terbuka

In February 1980, USAID agreed with a request of the government of
Indonesia to help set up an educational technology center, which, then, called

Communication Technology Center for Education and Culture (Pusat TKPK, then
abbreviated as Pustekkom). Pusat TKPK until 1984 played an important role in

giving support in the preparation of UT.
In January 1982, a series of workshops were conducted by Pusat TKPK,

Stanford University and the East-West Communications Institute in 18 days, in
Jakarta and Yogyakarta to discuss various forms and aspects of distance

education.

3