COST-EFFECTIVENESS COMPARISON OF DISTANCE EDUCATION IN INDONESIA, BANGLADESH AND PAKISTAN

Abstract

The significant objectives of this study were; to examine and calculate the total and average costs of each selected item, to calculate student’s opportunity costs, to analyse student’s satisfaction with programme, to analyse the cost effective measures taken by academicians for each of three programmes and to assess eleven years admissions and completion and to analyse main objectives of programmes. It was descriptive study based on analysis and comparison of B.Ed programme at Bangladesh Open University (BOU), B.Ed at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) Pakistan, and degree level/SI teacher training programme at University Terbuka (UT) Indonesia. It used a simple non-linear input and output design of “economic approach” of cost effectiveness analysis. The instruments that were developed to collect data about costs and other relevant features of programme were questionnaires. There were two questionnaires. The first questionnaire was administered to the management of programme. The elements in first questionnaire were; 1-Enrolment, 2-completion, 3-costs of examinations, 4- costs of radio and television transmissions, 5-course presentation costs (tutorial and workshop), 6- costs of printed material, 7-departmental/ establishment costs, 8- cost of building meant for this programme in the main campus of university, 9- objectives of programme and analyses about achievement of objectives, 10-benrolment and completion since 1992 to 2002. viiiThe selected output variables for cost-effectiveness analysis were; (a) Completion rate (b) Student’s satisfaction with programme. (C) The most important objectives of each selected programme were analyzed separately. Independent variables for data analysis were university, gender, age, qualification at the time of admission, profession and who paid the opportunity cost of students. The dependent variables for data analysis were student’s satisfaction with programme and student’s opportunity cost. The purpose to add some queries about the preliminary information was to obtain some of background knowledge about programme. Unit cost per pupil was the criteria for cost effectiveness analysis. The cost function applied for data analysis was; Unit cost = Fixed cost + Variable costs / N The results showed that enrolment was the highest at AIOU during 11 years. The highest average costs of examination were; 93.36 (UT), costs of course presentation were 93.46 (UT), costs of printed material were 98.97 (BOU), and departmental costs were 78.76 (BOU). Radio and television department produced programmes for students of BOU. Average cost of broadcast media was .851 at UT. As far as unit cost per student is concerned it was the lowest at AIOU. The mean scores of total opportunity costs were 411 for UT, 227 for BOU and 458 for AIOU. Student’s satisfaction with programme was highest at UT and lowest at BOU. The result showed that unit cost was lowest at AIOU and programme was the most cost effective due to economy of scale. Income from fee of each programme and item wise costs should be maintained in documents so that the assessment and comparison of programme may be feasible for management and researchers. The cost of examination is high at UT as compared to the other two universities. It is better to work out to lower down the cost of examination at UT. Costs of broadcast media at AIOU are in the margin. AIOU may spend on transmissions for all students of B. Ed. The costs of print and Department at UT are the lowest. AIOU and BOU can benchmark for lower down costs of print and department.