The Fourth ICDE Quality Certificate for Universitas Terbuka

Coinciding with the 36th Anniversary of Universitas Terbuka (UT) Indonesia, the Head of the Center for Education Quality Assurance, Ir. Kristanti Ambar Puspitasari, M.Ed., Ph.D. officially presented the Quality Certificate from International Council for Open and Education (ICDE) to UT ‘s Rector, Prof. Ojat Darojat, M.Bus., Ph.D., on 4 September 2020.

On 25 August 2020, UT received the Certificate of Completion or Quality Certificate from ICDE. The Council has conducted quality review to open and distance higher education (ODHE) institutions with the purpose to enhance public trust, which is by assuring that the quality standard and the provision of education services for the students are always well preserved and improved. Presented with the quality certificate from ICDE, it shows that there is an international recognition that UT has rendered the services of ODHE in accordance with the quality standards of the operation of ODHE institutions in the world. Such quality certificate is once again awarded through quality review on the implementation of open and distance higher education which was conducted since 2019.

The Quality Review in the year of 2020 was done by an Independent Reviewer Team commissioned by ICDE Secretariat, consisting of a number of open and distance higher education institution experts from three countries. The review was performed in two stages; the first is the review on Self Evaluation Review which was sent to the Reviewer Team 4 months prior to the review process and the second stage is visitation to UT’s Headquarter office and regional offices. For the duration of five business days, starting from the 9th to 13th of December 2019, ICDE’s Reviewer Team carried out document review and conducted interviews with UT’s Chief Executive Boards, Learning Material Writers, Tutors, Final Assignment Advisors, Students, and Graduates. The Reviewer Team has also made their visit to the three UT’s regional offices, namely Palembang (Sumatera Island), Surakarta (Java Island), and Manado(Sulawesi Island) . The interviews with the directors and staff of other 10 regional offices were conducted through video conference.

In March 2020, the Reviewer Team said that UT has made improvements on its programs and learning services to the students significantly since the ICDE’s quality review in 2016, which was the third quality review process and gave a number of recommendations. In the month of May 2020, UT sent action plan to respond the recommendation that the Reviewer Team made.

In the month of August 2020, ICDE confirmed that UT has implemented open and distance higher education institution or PTJJ system with high quality, having action plans for further development, and having exceeded the operation standards of open and distance higher education institutions or PTJJ to its students.

Prior to receiving the fourth quality certificate from ICDE in this 2020, UT has previously been awarded ICDE’s quality certificates in the years of 2005, 2010, and 2016.

This news was also published in ICDE Newsletter 9 September 2020