UNIVERSITAS TERBUKA’S STUDENT PREFERENCE ON THE “FREEDOM TO LEARN INDEPENDENT CAMPUS (MBKM)” PROGRAM

Abstract

The Indonesian government through the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (MoECRT) continues to strive to improve the competence of university graduates by providing opportunities for students to study or gain experience outside university. MoECRT then issued a policy of “Freedom to Learn-Independent Campus” (Merdeka Belajar-Kampus Merdeka/MBKM). For Universitas Terbuka (UT), which operates with a distance learning system, it is very feasible to implement the MBKM policy. The MBKM program was offered to students starting in 2021. The purpose of the study is to analyze student preferences toward MBKM program. Student preferences are focused on the scheme of MBKM organized by UT and MoECRT. The research uses a quantitative approach. The research population covers all UT students. Samples were taken from all study programs derived from 37 UT’s regional offices based on the following criteria: a) 4th semester students in 2021/22.1 for those students who take semester-based package system scheme or those who has taken a minimum of 70 credits (for students who do not take semester- based package system scheme); b) Minimum GPA 2.50. Data collection techniques were carried out through surveys and focus group discussions (FGD). The survey was conducted online to 600 students and there were 415 respondents who filled out the questionnaire. FGDs were conducted in three UT’s regional offices (Jakarta, Bogor, and Yogyakarta) with 15 students in each office. To find out the relationship between variables, correlation analysis was performed. The results showed that most of the respondents (51.8%) did not know about MBKM. The MBKM scheme of MoECRT that most UT students’s drawn to are Pertukaran Mahasiswa Merdeka and Kampus Mengajar (70.4). As for the MBKM program organized by UT, the most popular scheme are internships (72.5%), entrepreneurship (72.3%), and student exchange (65.3%). Based on student’s work status, those who are already working (70.2%) and not working (70.9%) have the same tendency to take part in student exchanges at other universities. Moreover, students who have a GPA of less than 2.75 and more than 2.75 have different interests to participate in Bangkit program.