Page 44 - 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 significant development that becomes a milestone in the history of this

faculty occurred in 1990 when UT was appointed to run the Diploma (DII)
Program for Elementary Classroom Teachers in accordance to the Minister of

Education's decree no.0854/4/1989 which necessitates all elementary school
teachers in Indonesia to obtain at least a diploma (DII). A year later, Diploma
(DII) Program for Elementary School Sports Teachers was opened. Because of

the various needs to improve the quality of teachers, the faculty also assign to

open specially designed or tailor made program which fits the available demand,
for example the Certificate Program for SMP Keci/ and SMP Terbuka 1 that
consists of seven programs developed in 1995 to 1997. There was also

Certificate Program for Subject Matter Teachers developed in 1994-1998.

With the improvement of teacher's qualifications at all levels, some of the
certificate and diploma programs are closed gradually without impairing student's
progress, and some undergraduate (S1) programs are offered for further

qualification improvements. One major concerned that relates to this was when
UT was permitted to open an undergraduate (S1) program for elementary school

teachers as pilot project in 2002 . This is also a significant accomplishment since
there were only six state educational institutions for educators that had permitted

to open similar program. In 2003, two undergraduate (S1) education programs

that were S1 Education Economy and S1 Vocational programs was opened based
on legal consent from the Directorate General of Higher Education.
By opening and closing programs incessantly according to needs, in 2006

this faculty ran nine undergraduate (S1) education programs, one teaching
certificate program, and three diploma (Dill} education programs . Unfortunately,

until 2006, the faculty had not been able to open a graduate program, although

1
SMP Kecilliterally means junior high school with limited number of students approximately 30-40
students, SMP Terbuka is junior high school for grown-up people who gave graduated from
elementary school

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