On May 15, 2024, representatives from Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), Pakistan, visited Universitas Terbuka (UT) to sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA). The event was attended by the Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology, Vice Deans of all faculties and the Heads of all study programs at UT. The MoA focused on exploring international partnership opportunities between UT and AIOU. Dr. Rahmat Budiman, UT’s Vice Rector for Research, Innovation, Partnership, and Business, and Dr. Zahid Majeed, AIOU’s Director of Academic Planning and Course Production, represented their respective institutions during the MoA signing and subsequent gift exchange session.
In his welcome address, Dr. Rahmat encouraged the Vice Deans and Heads of study programs at UT to take advantage of the international partnership opportunities facilitated by the newly signed MoA. He also proposed the possibility of AIOU lecturers delivering lectures to UT students to enhance collaboration between the two institutions.
Dr. Zahid, in his speech, introduced AIOU as a major public open university in Pakistan, highlighting its 50-year history, 5 million graduates, and annual enrolment of over 1 million students. He expressed gratitude for the opportunity to visit UT again and sign another MoU. Dr. Zahid emphasized AIOU’s openness to UT students enrolling in their courses and highlighted the benefits of student exchange programs, noting that many international students from various institutions have already participated in such collaborations with AIOU.
During the Visiting Lecture question and answer session, Dr. Subekti Nurmawati, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at UT, inquired about the number of study programs at AIOU and the implementation of practical courses, particularly those related to science. Dr. Martino Wibowo, Head of the Post-doctoral Degree Programme in Management at UT, asked about strategies to attract UT students to participate in course exchanges at AIOU. Dr. Zahid responded by explaining that AIOU offers laboratories for practical courses supported by assistants and that AIOU has developed over 3,000 courses across 318 study programs in 40 departments. Meanwhile, he also mentioned how affordable the courses in AIOU are. For instance, it costs less than $2,000 to complete a compost-doctoral-doctoral degree programme.
Dr. Rahmat also highlighted UT’s new Islamic Education study program and suggested the potential benefits of collaborating with AIOU, which has an established Islamic finance and economics program. Dr. Zahid noted that AIOU frequently invites experts from the Shariah banking sector in Pakistan to lecture in their program, offering a valuable resource for UT students.
In conclusion, Dr. Zahid underlined the importance of networking, good communication, and commitment, which underlie the success of AIOU’s international partnership. Especially the starting point of AIOU’s success in international partnership occurred in 2010 when Dr. Zahid joined the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) Conference, where he met a lot of people with similar interests and backgrounds. Finally, Dr. Rahmat urged UT faculty representatives to set targets for international collaboration with AIOU. Each faculty at UT will appoint a focal person to manage this initiative, and Dr. Zahid mentioned that a virtual meeting between the focal persons from each faculty at UT and AIOU would be scheduled in the near future to further these collaborative efforts.
