To respond to the amount of news spreading in the media, Universitas Terbuka (UT) emphasized that UT was not involved in Ferienjob Program, concealed as an internship program in Germany under PT CVGEN and PT Sinar Harapan Bangsa (SHB) as the promoter of Ferienjob program suspected as the student exchange agency.

UT has been implementing Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) program, a distinguished program from and under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (MoECRT) aimed to lead the students to acknowledge various valuable skills and knowledge to compete in the industry.

The MBKM program policy is aligned with the regulation of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Number 3, 2020, about a Higher Education Standard, article 18 states that the time and obligation for the Bachelor’s or Diploma students are able to be implemented: 1) Committed to Follow through the whole learning process under the department at university according to the time and obligation, and 2) Committed to following through the learning process under the department to suffice half the time and obligation and to follow the learning process apart from the department.

Through MBKM, the students get a chance to study apart from the department at their university for one semester or around 20 credits equally; or two semesters (40 credits) as the longest to study in the same department at different university, a study in a different department at different university; and a learning process outside the higher educational institution.

UT organized and facilitated MBKM in two schemes. Namely, Flagship MBKM Kemendikbudristek, and Independent MBKM. Flagship MBKM Kemendikbudristek has now participated in several programs:

Magang dan Studi Independen Bersertifikat (MSIB)
Indonesian Internation Student Mobility Awards (IISMA)
Pertukaran Mahasiswa Merdeka (PMM)
Kampus Mengajar (KM)
Wirausaha Merdeka (WMK)

As an example, in MSIB program, one of the awardees is Haris Fadhilah, who got a chance to join the program at ParagonCorp in Jakarta, which supervises 14 cosmetics and self-care brands. Next, the IISMA program has brought four students in 3 years. Muhammad Bijaksabara Hikmawan and Shan Syuja Adiwinata at Korea University, Richmond Faithful at Padua University, and Salma Amordeeva at Universiti Malaya.

The MBKM programs done by UT show that UT is genuinely selective in establishing cooperation and collaboration. To conclude, Universitas Terbuka strongly emphasized that UT was not involved in the Farienjob internship program in Germany