The event also marked the cooperation between Universitas Terbuka (UT) and AIOU, as the two parties signed an agreement. Representing UT was rector Prof. Drs. Ojat Darojat, M.Bus., Ph.D. UT has collaborated with 50 other universities in the world in order to find a better way of learning, considering various factors such as flexibility, affordability and quality for all.

Prof. Drs. Ojat had previously been appointed as president of the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU), and therefore UT carries a reputation of high-quality education of distance learning. AIOU has been one of the most-trusted partners in that regard.

The partnership, which was first incepted in 2019, is hoped to broaden staff experiences and facilitate the exchange of ideas regarding implementing the open and distance education system or Pendidikan Jarak Jauh (PTJJ) system to advance education in Indonesia. The PTJJ refers to a learning system that involves two-way communication via a medium between lecturers and students, regardless of if they are separated physically. The implementation

became necessary and more apparent than ever with the growth of digitalization during the pandemic.

“After COVID-19, people have actually started really believing in the power of online education. Before, people were really reluctant to say whether this is an equally good-quality education or not. Now, after this pandemic, there is at least acceptance of online education,” said Prof. Dr. Zia Ul-Qayyum, vice chancellor of AIOU.

The agreement signed on Monday was merely an extension of a long relationship between the two institutions since the signing of the memorandum in 2019. Earlier in May of this year, as a university in the global center of Islamic politics, AIOU invited Prof. Ojat as an esteemed guest for the COMTECH Inter-Islamic Network on Virtual Universities (CINVU). He accepted the invitation and came as a keynote speaker from a university that is located in a country where 90 percent of the population is Muslim.

Also present at the event was Dr. Zahid Majeed, the Director of International Collaboration and Exchange. He was there to introduce four educators from Pakistan who were also present at the meeting: Prof. Dr. Tanzeela Nabeel, professor of Special Education; Prof. Dr. Saqib Riaz, professor of Mass Communication; Dr. Sana Ullah, associate professor of Quran and Tafseer; Dr. Afshan Huma, assistant professor of Educational Planning Policy Studies and Leadership. Dr. Zahid went on to say that the two institutions shared similarities and values, which opened the door to collaborations.

The partnership between the two is hoped to facilitate shared knowledge about distance learning in order to be able to offer joint programs globally. Last year, AIOU successfully admitted 350 international students from different nationalities, which created the impetus for UT as well to start offering joint programs worldwide.

“In order for UT to declare its vision as a world-quality PTJJ, it is appropriate to offer programs that can be of interest to and invite the global community to take courses at UT in collaboration with Allama Iqbal Open University,” said Prof. Ojat. “Our hope is that in the future, UT will be the choice not only for the Indonesian people, but also for the global community at the ASEAN level, at the Asian level and even in the world.”

Prof. Dr. Zia also announced during his speech that AIOU currently has 1.2 million students enrolled at the school, and that AIOU is the largest educational institution in Pakistan and the second-largest university in Asia. Therefore, the collaboration sets a target for 500,000 students this year in order to gradually reach 1 million. He expressed his desire for the two institutions to achieve this by designing new courses and suggested the induction of a bilingual class in the future. Furthermore, the two men talked about accessibility of education to all parts of the country.

“I would say the focus we had in our minds when we were expanding was to take that education to the remotest parts in the settled areas, in big cities where they have other universities as well. But this mode of education best suits those who are working somewhere, who cannot attend school from 9 to 4 and five days a week; so this mode of education suits them. So, we really need to tap that segment of society,” highlighted Prof. Dr. Zia.

However, what remains as a challenge is the lack of infrastructure in rural areas. Prof. Dr. Zia pointed out the need for a comprehensive-transformation roadmap in order to reach the parts of the country where there are no institutions at all.

“During these last two or three years, I think almost all of the universities who are really vibrant enough, and have leadership ability like your rector,” Dr. Zia paused and pointed over at Dr. Ojat, “could transform their operations and bring more technology into different kinds of operations.”

At the end of the day, Prof. Dr. Zia narrowed down the objectives that are already in place for the partnership: to come up with a standard framework of quality assurance in education, which will then be used across Asian countries to enable faculty and student exchange; which will result in new-course development utilizing multimedia technologies; and to carry out joint-research projects for generating new knowledge in the domains of their own respective areas. The initiative is primarily meant to promote collaboration between students and faculty members in order to benefit all parties and set a new quality standard for education.

“There is a silver lining for every cloud. So, it’s been, for us, COVID-19 is just like a blessing in disguise, because there are now universities that transform their learning process from face-to-face traditional classrooms and move on to online learning. And so now, we are here as a benchmark for the minister of education in our country of Indonesia. There are many coming from other universities to learn how to develop and manage online learning,” concluded Prof. Dr. Ojat.

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