An exit survey as baseline data for improving the quality of student learning support

Kristanti Ambar Puspitasari, Benny Agus Pribadi and Sudirah
Universitas Terbuka

Indonesia


The quality of service in a higher education institution can be measured by how satisfied its alumni are with the student learning support provided during their studies. The alumni are important as they can be potential marketing agents for the University from which they graduated. It is expected that satisfied alumni will be likely to speak proudly about the university they attended. Universitas Terbuka (UT) — the only higher education institution in Indonesia which implements open and distance learning (ODL) — had over 579,261 active students in the second semester of 2013. This massive student body requires a very comprehensive database for both students and alumni as baseline data to provide appropriate support services. UT has been implementing an exit survey for several years to update the database of its alumni. The objective of this survey is to gather information on the alumni's occupational status; reasons for studying at UT; level of satisfaction with the student support services provided during their enrolment; the reasons for selecting their study programme; and how they learned about UT. This study analyses the results of UT's exit survey with a view to potential improvement of the student learning support offered.