This study had three purposes. The first was to
determine attitudes of Universitas Terbuka (UT)
ii
academic staff towards distance education. The second
was to investigate levels of job satisfaction of UT
academic staff. The third was to determine whether or
not there was a relationship between attitudes of UT
academic staff towards distance education and levels of
job satisfaction of UT academic staff.
The sample of this study was UT junior academic
staff members. A survey technique was employed to
gather information from respondents. The instrument was
divided into three parts: Part 1, Personal and
professional information of academic staff; Part 2,
Faculty Attitudes Questionnaire; and Part 3, Hill's
(1986-1987) Faculty Job Satisfaction Questionnaire .
The questionnaire was mailed to 192 academic staff
across faculties and service and support units at
Universitas Terbuka's main office in Jakarta,
Indonesia. One hundred, sixty-one academic staff
returned the questionnaires, for a return rate of
83.85%. The results indicated that UT junior academic
staff possessed fairly positive attitudes towards
distance education. From the Hill's Faculty Job
Satisfaction Questionnaire, respondents indicated
slight dissatisfaction with their present jobs. A
Pearson product-moment correlation showed a small
positive correlation between the academic staff
attitudes towards distance education and the levels of
job satisfaction of the academic staff. The ~-test
results showed no significant differences in attitudes
towards distance education between the respondents who
worked in faculties and the respondents who were placed
in units. In addition, the ~-test results showed no
significant differences in the levels of job
satisfaction between the academic staff who were placed
in faculties and the academic staff who were assigned
to units.
The results are discussed in terms of implications
for enhancing the attitudes of UT academic staff
towards distance education and improving levels of UT
academic staff job satisfaction.