As an open and distance learning university, Universitas Terbuka continues to innovate and enhance its service capacity and quality through various collaborations and resource sharing. International collaboration has been done by UT to maintain its duty as a world-class ODL Institution and a State University of the Legal Agency (PTN-BH). Various services and enhancement business processes of UT became issues when UT had its independence in managing its academic and non-academic resources. To develop international collaboration, UT has established a collaboration with educational and government institutions in South Korea, one of which is a collaboration with the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education & Training or KRIVET. UT came to South Korea to follow up on the prior fundamental collaboration, especially about the development of the Entrepreneurship department by the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) of UT. The visitation to KRIVET was part of the movement in a set of initiated collaborations with Chungbuk National University (CBNU).
On April 29, 2024, the Rector of Universitas Terbuka, Prof. Ojat Darojat, M.Bus., Ph.D. and delegations from FEB of UT, Dr. Meirani Harsasi, M.Si. as the Dean of Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Olivia Idrus, SE., M.Sc as the Vice-Dean of Students Affairs, Learning Service, and Partnerships of FEB, Dr. Maya Maria, S.E., M.M. as a Lecturer of FEB and the Head of Marketing and Public Relations Sub Directorate of UT, and Halim Dedy Perdana, S.E., M.SM., M.Rech, Ak. as a Lecture of FEB who acted as the coordinator of collaborative agenda between UT and South Korea, were warmly welcomed by Dr. Hye Won Ko as the President of KRIVET and Dr. Sangdon Lee as the Vice President of KRIVET, so Prof Ojat conveyed his gratitude. Besides, Prof. Dr. Nafsiah Mohamed from UiTM Malaysia also attended this occasion.
KRIVET is an international institution of Korea established in an international collaboration network, including ADB, ILO, government, and other institutions. To this day, KRIVET has been responsible for strengthening the vocational high school institutions in Southeast Asia, besides taking part in giving support to the workers, daily worker student training, and enhancing digital competency for government institutions. Therefore, UT was interested in establishing collaborations with KRIVET in several sectors. The intended forms of collaboration for UT include the student internship program, the development of vocational education, joint research, and proper training according to the policy of vocational education systems in Indonesia. KRIVET also offered the collaboration master plan, including guidance on the certification system and others.
Prof. Ojat acknowledged the invitation to establish an international collaboration scheme, especially related to ICT. Prof. Ojat presented that the UT movement in the future will be more intensive in developing business prospects in Indonesia, such as the offer of a micro-credential program, metaverse, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality in various sectors. Through collaboration, UT needs to obtain important input related to microlearning, which is based on micro-credentials. A number of the latest ICT-based curriculum developments have been organized, so this benchmarking is hoped to help UT focus on developing the future communication technology-based university in a digital era.
In the future, UT will always reinforce its steps to transform and prepare business processes as UT PTN-BH, providing the best learning service to meet the needs of the industry. Furthermore, UT is constantly making breakthroughs to promote the capability of educational technology support.
