Page 48 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)

guidelines for learning activities in order to achieve certain educational goals

(article 1, item no.19). This is the definition used in the article.
For an education institution, curriculum is a main source for determining

goals and directions of a study program . Apart from various definition of
curriculum, each educational program will always begin with curriculum

development because it is curriculum that will guide how to run the program . No
matter how simple the curriculum is, it would be properly documented by a well

managed study program.
Considering the role of curriculum in educational program , it is
understandable that curriculum will always develop in alignment with the

development in society. Ideally, every five year curriculum should be reassessed.

When there is basic change in the social needs which has not been
accommodated in the curriculum, the curriculum should be revised and updated.
In relation to that, UT, which has been operated in about 22 years, had revised

its curriculum several times. The following explains the characteristics of the

curriculum in each period .

1984-1990 period

This period can be said as the early period as UT was just established on

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September 4 h, 1984. With short preparations before the official opening of UT, it
can be imagined that the curriculum was not well designed . Due to the
unavailable complete documents, some aspects related to the curriculum can

only be traced back from the catalogue and student's guide book. The curriculum

consisted of course content for each study lined up as credit units per semester.
Undergraduate (S1) programs consist of 144-160 credit units. Diploma (Dill)
programs consist of 110-120 credit units, Diploma (DII) programs consist of 80-

90 credit units, Diploma (DI) consist of 40-60 credit units, and Teaching

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