Understanding And Increasing Student Persistence In Distance Education: A Case Of Indonesia  

Oleh:

Belawati, Tian

Jenis: Article from Bulletin/Magazine
Dalam koleksi: Jurnal Studi Indonesia vol. 7 no. 1 (Jan. 1997)
Topik: Universitas Terbuka; Student Persistence
Fulltext: Tian Belawati.pdf (208.77KB)

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Lack of persistence has been a central concern in all kinds of education. In any educational setting, there is always a possibility that students will either withdraw, suspend, or even drop their studies altogether. However, the concern about lack of persistence in distance education is higher than in conventional education. Despite the variations in definitions and measurements of persistence, studies have shown that persistence rates in distance education are very low (Irish, 1978; Woodley and Parlett,1983; UBC, 1992). Furthermore, newly-enrolled distance education students have been reported as those who are most significantly at risk of non-persistence (Roberts, 1984). Those studies measured persistence in different ways, but regardless of whether non-persistence was defined in terms of wastage, attrition, withdrawal or non-completion, distance education studies reported higher rates than traditional face-to-face education. Furthermore, the studies strongly indicate that non-persistent behaviors are more likely to occur within students’ early or beginning stages of study, rather than at later points. This lack of persistence is also the situation at the Indonesian Open University (Universitas Terbuka-UT). Universitas Terbuka was established in September, 1984 because of the rapid expansion of senior high schools and the low labor absorption capacity of the Indonesian economy. As with other distance education institutions, it was also founded to serve people who did not have the opportunity to attend conventional face-to-face higher educational institutions due to lack of funding, time, or access. As such, its student constituency is similar to those of other distance education institutions. Nevertheless, although UT’s statistics (1991, 1992) also show that non-persistent behaviors are more likely to occur early in a student’s study, the degree of non-persistence at UT is markedly higher than at other institutions. The average degree of completion rate of students whose first registrations were between 1984 and 1990 was only 4.8%. This means that over 95% of students of these seven cohorts (groups of students who register in the same academic years) either withdrew or did not continuously maintain their studies. This completion rate is much lower than, for example, the average degree of completion rate at the British Open University (BOU) of 48.8% (based on data from 1971 to 1981 intakes); furthermore, if the BOU rate was based on completion rates within 8 years of study, it was 45.1% (The Open University and the Department of Education and Science, 1991). Universitas Terbuka’s completion rate is also lower than the average completion rates at other Asian distance education universities. For example, the completion rate of the Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) diploma programs in 1987 was 22% (Reddy, 1989) and the average degree of completion rate of Thailand’s Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU) based on its 1980-1985 intake was 17% (Sriprasart et al., 1988). Statistics also show that most UT students did not maintain their registration continuously in every semester. For example, only 57.9% of UT first cohort's students (September 1984) re-registered immediately in the second semester, even though some of the non-reregistered students returned to the program in later semesters. However, the latest data shows that only 7.4% among the original 54,035 first cohort's registrants were still in the program and only 5.6% among them have graduated by September 1991. Adding up these two groups of students (those who were still in the program and those who have graduated) gives a total of only about 13% of students as actual or potential graduates from the first original cohort. In other words, about 87% of the enrollees of this cohort did not persist in their programs over the eight year period. This example illustrates that student persistence rates are low at UT. Studying this phenomenon is highly topical; the low persistence rate has significant implications for UT and Indonesia. Organizationally, low persistence can jeopardize the existence of UT; a drop in the number of students means a drop in tuition income. This, in turn, influences the institution’s ability to extend and increase the quality of its instructional technology and services. Further, low rates of persistence may also jeopardize the image of the institution, since they may give the impression of an unsatisfactory system. As mentioned, UT was designed and established in large part to serve people unable to attend conventional institutions. Therefore, a drop in the number of students also means a drop in absorption of these target populations. This implies the failure of government policies regarding education equity. Finally, and most importantly, low persistence rates also imply inefficiency in the use of national resources. In accordance with this, in this article, I would like to analyze the phenomenon and to try to propose possible institutional interventions to increase student persistence in distance education; especially within the context of the only Indonesian distance education institution, namely Universitas Terbuka (UT).

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