Page 31 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)

operation of those universities. Thus, the education cost of DE University was
relatively lower than that of conventional higher education institutions.

The Resources of the Government to Found
Universitas Terbuka

The main problem faced by the government was that there were not enough
human resources ·who had enough understanding and knowledge about DE . Study

program that was close to DE was Education Technology study program , which
was seldom offered by common universities. IKIP Jakarta (now UNJ) offered this

field of study at undergraduate level. The Department of Education and Culture
had a center called Pusat TKPK (part of Agency for Education and Culture
Research I BP3K) that had the duty to open DE in secondary level of education.

The government, then , decided four person as the member of Preparation

Committee of UT Foundation, which was led by Prof. Setijadi, the Vice Dean II
Graduate Faculty of IKIP Jakarta, and three vices i.e. Prof. Sigit Muryono, from
Teaching Certification V Project, Prof. Moegiadi and Prof. Sumad i Surya.brata

both from BP3K. Further only Prof. Setijadi and Prof. Sigit Muryono who could

totally dedicate their time to the development of UT. The two other persons were
back to their previous units. The remaining persons recruited the main staffs, the
operational staffs, and the administration staffs who helped the Committee in

planning and developing the future UT further.

Additionally, Ditjen DIKTI had a piece of land that was actually planned for
development of research institutions which was not happened due to certain
reasons . The land and the budget for developing three buildings were altered

into developing Center Office of the new institution . In 1985, UT that was located
in one of IKIP Jakarta bu ild ings was able to move to the new offices in Pondok

Cabe, Tangerang.

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