Page 35 - 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 Preparation for the Birth of

Universitas Terbuka

Pre pa ratio n M a d e by the Government to
Ope n U n ivers ita s T erb u ka

Idea about the opening of UT had existed since 1981. The government

through the Oitjen 0/KT/, decided that UT was to be opened in 1983, to give
opportunities in offering tertiary education which were highly in need.
A group of university lecturers together with the staff of Oitjen 0/KT/ had

been given tasks to develop proposals about UT development plan. The first

proposal was submitted in October, 1981 by the group led by Prof. Setijadi. This
plan was basically a design which was made by the team of Directorate of
Academic Facilities in June, 1982. This plan was submitted to the Minister of

Education to be approved .

Meanwhile Oitjen 0/KT/ approached USAID to conduct workshop-seminar to
discuss DE at the level of elementary to tertiary education. Thus workshop was
conducted in January, 1982 in Jakarta and Yogyakarta for the first time. It was

discussed the opening of DE university (UT) that was wanted by the government
of Indonesia. The meeting had changed the previous October 1981 proposal a

little bit.
After the Minister of Education decided the development of a Committee to

prepare the opening of UT, Oitjen 0/KTI together with USAID conducted another
workshop which discussed about UT specifically. This seminar produces the

concrete operational plan of some components of UT. This was followed up by
the Academy for Educational Development (AED) sponsored by USAID by

developing actual operation plan for UT. Unfortunately this plan was not
completed and not acknowledged by UT staffs. At that time, UT staffs were very

busy with the preparation for the birth of UT. With the limited staffs and very high

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