TIAN BELAWATI, Keeping education open

The university that 47-year-old Tian Belawati heads is one unlike any other, with students in even the most far-flung corners of the nation.

"We are at once some kind of KPU *General Elections Commission*, something similar to FedEx *courier service*, Gramedia *publishing company* and a testing center like TOEFL," says the recently elected rector of Indonesia Open University (UT).

This conglomerate of functions may well be the appropriate definition of what it is like to manage a higher education institution that reaches college students in all provinces and all islands - no matter how remote - in Indonesia.

Founded in the mid-1980s, UT aims to provide higher education for all through the flexibility of distance learning. The focus has not changed in the past quarter of a century, although it now does it with a little help from technology. Just a little.

"Technology and distance learning go together like two sides of a coin," Tian says. "But as not everyone in the country has access to the Internet, we still have to maintain the old ways of doing things."

Managing things the old way means the university has to consider not only academic development, but also how to get materials to wherever the students are, Tian explains.

"That's why I said we are like the KPU, because we have to also think about logistics," she adds.

You don't have to think about it long to realize just how challenging it must be to provide distance learning in a country where Internet penetration is no higher than 15 percent and students are scattered across thousands of islands.

During examination periods, what Tian and her staff worry about is not only whether the students will pass, but whether they can all even get to examination centers or receive the necessary materials on time.

"What I get during those weeks are SMSs telling me that students from Ambon or Nias or Bawean could not take the exam on schedule because the currents were so strong that the boats that were supposed to take *the exam materials* could not sail," she says. "Or in another case, 400 sets of exam materials sank along with the ferry that was carrying them in Bawean."

But challenging logistics aside, a long-distance university is still a university.

Over the years, UT has built a reputation for having a very egalitarian approach to accepting students, meaning it accepts students of all ages and socioeconomic classes without requiring them to pass entrance tests. Which is also why it bears the label of second-class university.

A label that Tian is striving to erase, as did her predecessor - her father.

"People might think that we lag behind conventional universities in terms of quality. But it has something to do with the input, not the learning process here," she says.

Opening classes for all - literally all, from 19 year olds to 90 year olds - without tests, the university merely provides the framework for each student to start the learning process on his or her own, she argues. Most of the students are teachers seeking to upgrade their formal education.

But recently UT has also been shaping itself up to provide what Tian calls "clustered education", including full online courses such as Indonesian for non-native speakers or a master's program in business management.

"My task is to continue the effort to rebuild the image of UT to one better known among the wider public, not only teachers," she says.

Tian's own involvement in the field of distance learning is not something she ever planned, but neither has she ever regretted it.

A graduate from the agricultural economics department at Bogor's Institute for Agriculture, Tian was initially just helping her father and his colleague who together founded the university.

"I was thinking, *Why not help here while waiting for other *job* vacancies?'" she says. "But a year passed and every time I got a chance for a job interview, I was always busy working at UT."

When the university offered her a scholarship to pursue a masters' degree in distance learning in Canada, she did not refuse. From there, she became more deeply involved in the field of distance learning. In 1996, after finishing her doctoral research, she became the head of the UT research institute.

Today, she doesn't for a moment regret missing those interviews that might have taken her some place else.

"There is nothing more rewarding than attending a graduation ceremony where you can see a woman, her mother and her elementary school teacher graduate at the same time," Tian says, recalling a recent graduation ceremony.

"UT is more than just about distance learning. It is about providing a chance for a life-time learning experience," she adds.

"We never question anyone's motivation in taking programs at the university. But if you see someone going to Jakarta to get both her pension decree and her bachelor's certificate, you know why she is pursuing further studies," Tian says, referring to another graduate whose story underscored the importance of her work.

Which could be why she dedicates more than the designated working hours to developing the institution she heads.

Long working hours may be par for the course when running a "mega" university - an education institution that lists more than half a million students - especially one that has become a reference model for similar institutions in the region.

"My working day starts at 4.30 a.m. That's the only time I have to answer all my emails," Tian says. "But it is all paid off when I see the graduates proudly telling their own unique stories. It's all worthwhile."