New restrictions imposed on private Islamic universities

In an effort to avoid lecturers and students being left high and dry by universities closing due to an ‘oversupply’ of places at a burgeoning number of private Islamic colleges, the government has imposed strict restrictions in the past year on new private Islamic institutions and new study programmes within existing institutions.

Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population and around 1,155 Islamic higher education institutions, mainly teaching Islamic sciences. Only 97 are state-owned under the Religious Affairs Ministry. The remaining 1,058 are private.

An additional 3,250 Islamic institutions come under the Education and Culture Ministry, of which 122 are state-owned institutions teaching a broader curriculum than Islamic science.

Most of the private colleges are set up to recruit students who seek jobs in religious ministry, religious schools and other religious service institutions, including the Office of Religious Affairs that oversees marriages, inheritance, waqf (charity assets) management; religious courts, madrassas and Islamic universities.

But the needs of these organisations have been met. “Now there is even an oversupply,” said Dr Zainal Mukarram, head of Islamic communication and broadcasting (KPI) at the State Islamic University Bandung.

“Many of them think the money will soon flow in as students enrol in their newly established universities,” Mukarram maintains. But with a short-term interest in merely supplying these Islamic organisations, the desire to set up universities or colleges often outweighs the capacity to run them, particularly financial capability.

“When the government announced that it needed sharia judges and marriage administration officials to deal with religious issues in the community, the shari’a [Islamic law] and ushuluddin [Islamic studies] programmes soon became favourite [subjects],” Mukarram told University World News.

Reduced demand

Now the government no longer recruits shari’a judges and marriage administrative workers, these study programmes are no longer of interest to students. “Even when we offer free tuition for the programme, no student is interested,” he added.

Declining interest has reduced revenues for such colleges. “The owners are unable to pay lecturers’ wages, then it’s only a matter of time before lecturers leave,” Mukarram said.

“The study programmes aim to produce religious teachers for regular schools. The demand is already met but they keep supplying [graduates],” said Professor Mahmud, director of the West Java Coordinating Body for Private Islamic Universities.

Mahmud, who is also rector of the State Islamic University Bandung, said his office provides assistance and advice to private Islamic universities to improve or at least survive.

Only recently, institutions under the remit of the Religious Affairs Ministry were able to introduce programmes in medicine and the sciences and in social and political studies licensed by the Education and Culture Ministry, prior to the moratorium first announced in May 2020 by the Ministry of Religious Affairs on new programmes and new institutions.

If the institution is put up for sale, it can make matters worse. “If someone comes and take them over, then the lecturers and students are rescued. But if nobody comes, they [the institutions] die,” said Dr Ujang Dedih, a university management consultant at the Coordinating Body for Islamic Institutions of Higher Education (Kopertais).

Ujang did not mention a specific figure for universities that collapse not long after being established but said: “There are many of them.”

Unaccredited programmes

Compounding the problem is the number of unaccredited programmes at private Islamic institutions. Data from the Directorate General of Islamic Education at the Religious Affairs Ministry shows that some 1,909 programmes at Islamic universities have yet to receive national accreditation.

Certification issued by a university to its graduates of an unaccredited programme would be invalid for other universities or government agencies.

Even programme accreditation does not necessarily guarantee acceptance by government offices as some government agencies accept only Accreditation A from job applicants – the highest category of the three-tier accreditation under the official verification and evaluation process. “This creates frustration among graduates,” Mukarram said.

In October 2018, the Cirebon District Government announced that some 1,723 of 2,507 civil servant applicants in the district in West Java who passed three stages of testing had failed in the final stage of document assessment because their education certificates did not include an accreditation stamp.

In August the same year, local media Riau Green reported that a number of students at the Bengkalis State Islamic High School reported the institution to the local police for issuing unaccredited certificates and started action to sue the institution.

“If we apply for a position in government offices, or in the police, we would not be admitted because our certificates are unaccredited. Years of studies have been in vain,” said Deni Purwanto, one of the students suing the institution. “When we enrolled in this school, they said their programme was accredited,” he added.

Mohammad Isom Yusqi, secretary to the director of Islamic Education, said this often results in graduates taking up jobs that are incompatible with their educational background. Some have become local politicians.

He called on heads of Islamic colleges to research market opportunities for such programmes, rather than relying on job openings in government offices. “We need skilled human resources for zakah (charity) and waqf management, hajj (pilgrimage) organisation, and shari’a banks. These are in the community, not only in government offices,” Yusqi said.