Open universities

In chronological order of establishment, these are the Korea National Open University, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University in Thailand, Radio and Television Universities in China, Universitas Terbuka in Indonesia, Indira Gandhi National Open University in India. and University of Distance Education in the Union of Myanmar (formerly, Burma). Daniel (1996) characterizes these 'mega-universities'

Indonesia's Universitas Terbuka (UT), established in Jakarta in 1984 in hasty response to a rapidly growing demand for university places, was granted university status in 1992. UT was based on the British Columbia Open Learning Agency model and conceived not so much as an open university, but as a network, with the course writing, computerized record systems and 32 regional study centers contracted out to participating institutions and enquiry services to post offices (Zuhairi, 1994), UT has experienced considerable organizational, operational, budgetary, and pedagogical problems. However. by the first quarter of 1997, the number of UT students had reached 397,543 and the total number of graduates was 207,976 (ICDL, 1998).

Outcomes

Analyzing the high non-persistence rates at Universitas Terbuka, Belawati (1998) concluded that Indonesian students needed far more assistance and direction in their learning than their western counterparts and that the high levels of dropout and failure were largely attributable to the conscious decision by the university administration to minimize student support.

References

Belawati, T. (1998). Increasing student persistence in Indonesian post-secondary distance education. Distance Education. 19(l), 81-108.

Zuhairi, A. (1994). A comparative study of single-mode and dual-mode distance teaching universities in Indonesia. Australia and New Zealand. Ph.D. Thesis, University of New England, Australia.