Page 37 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)

In the meantime, that limited time was also used to gain support from other
universities and institutions needed in the operation of UT. By the request of the

Minister to all State University Rectors, supports were gained from almost all of
the state universities to open Regional Offices in every province. There was

cooperation with the Computer Center of Universitas Indonesia in digital
recording of students registration and examination, training in the use of super

mini computer and the use of the computers, since UT could not afford to buy its
own computer for data processing and storage . There was also cooperation with

PT Pos dan Giro, the Post Office, for students to register and pay tuition fees, as
well as for course material distribution. Later on there was also agreement with

Bank Rakyat Indonesia for students to pay tuition fee. With TVRI , an agreement
was also made to broadcast UT courses for 20 minutes every week. With RRI a

similar agreement was also made, but with more broadcast time.
After all efforts in building support by means of cooperation were achieved,
concentration was aimed at the writing and publishing of learning materials at

least for the duration of two semesters. At that time, there were a lot of famous

experts from conventional universities who were able to write UT learning
materials (which further on called modules). Those writers were trained as DE
course writers in several batches by Dr. Atwi Suparman and several senior staffs

of UT. This writing process took a lot of time and energy of the staffs. After the

writing was finished , manuscript was typed, quickly reviewed , and edited, so that
it was ready to be published. At that time it was very common that staffs were
working overtime till late at night to be able to meet the deadline.

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