Page 27 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)

Training Institute (Lembaga Pelatihan Perbankan lndonesia/LPPI) and also
attended by some of participants from Bank of Indonesia and LPPI.

With the support of Educational Communication Development, The
Preparation Committee of UT Foundation made a temporary operational plan

based on the plan created in October 1981 , and the result of discussion in the
1984 Workshop. This plan, Initial Planning Considerations, which was written by

some consultants from various countries, finally, was only used as a white book
by UT staffs , because UT staffs were busy with the very speedy passing events.

It could be said that UT was carried out without enough detail concrete
plan . The course materials had to be immediately prepared , at least for one and

a half semester. And at last, the course materials for three semesters were ready
before the opening in September 1984. In order to prepare the writers and

staffs to produce the ready-to-print manuscripts, they needed trainings. Finally,
UT could recruit approximately 1000 writer candidates that were trained in three

days consecutively. The staffs who prepared ready-to-print manuscripts were
also trained in using simple desktop computers (Apple II), which was a new office

innovation at that time and very unfamiliar tools for the new recruited staffs.
In September 1984, UT was ready to accept the first students. This could

happen due to the help of Universitas Indonesia (UI) Computer Center that lent
mini computer and its software for registration and students' data storage .

Concrete Form of Universitas Terbuka

The legal foundation of UT was the Decree of President No. 41 '1984, while

the regulation used was the higher education regulation of Indonesia, which was
not written specifically for distance higher education. Therefore, the UT

organization structure -which was not in the Decree of President- had to be
synchronized with the organizational structure of conventional university.

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