ABSTRACT

 
       The main issue facing education in Indonesia, is explosion prospective students who wish to enter college, especially the leading public universities in the country. Each prospective student competing limited bench fight conventional public universities. The paradigm of the community who still regard universities as a first choice, putting UT as an alternative for prospective students to study at public universities, with a relatively low cost compared to when a student at a conventional college. In this connection, the mission of UT to provide accessibility to all citizens of the state in order to higher education, is already significant with the views of prospective students and society in general. But the significance of the demands of necessity at UT to complete the various colleges that promising prerequisite for high demand, especially for high school graduates who certainly are in a class of school age. Accessibility to education is at the UT motto: "Making Higher Education Open to All". This slogan became a challenge for UT, because the Directorate General of Higher Education data reveals, 2.2 million graduates from high school/vocational school per year is only about 63% of successful continuing education to university level. In other words there are 37% more who still do not have access to higher education.
      Entering this 2011 UT started to recruit new students aged 19-23 years and thus increase the gross enrollment rate. Admittedly, all this time UT students are generally dominated by the age of 35 years and over. Those who study generally had to work and follow the tasks of distance learning. To determine the extent to which student interest high school graduates to get into UT, then the research is done in several high schools in Kota Tangerang Selatan (close to the headquarters of the open university).

The collected data were analyzed with descriptive qualitative methods. Research  aims to measure the perceptions of students, teachers and parents to UT, so it can reveal some things that need to be UT to recruit school-age students, in accordance with UT's mission and programs that have been defined by Directorate General of Higher Education.

Keywords: accessibility of higher education, high school graduates, the perception of UT, UT     attraction.