Islamic Economics Higher Education: A Critical Survey

Rahmatina Awaliah Kasri1

Islamic Economics and Business Center / Department of Economics, University of Indonesia

Kampus Baru Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Jawa Barat, Indonesia E-mail: rahmatina@fe.ui.ac.id /unirahma@yahoo.com

Abstract

The development of Islamic economics, banking and finance leads to the need for

high quality human resources. However, this expectation is yet to be fulfilled by

education institutions. Some scholars even criticize the current development of

education institution teaching Islamic economics. In view of these, there is a need

to evaluate the current practice of Islamic economic teaching and identify the

problems and challenges faced by the institutions. This study finds that most of

Islamic economics education institutions adopt the commodification approach and

the surface-learning method driven by market demand in developing their

curriculum. Furthermore, curriculum structure differs among various universities

offering MBA/MA/MSc programs in Islamic economics, banking and finance in

Asian, Middle Eastern, and European countries. The differences come from

internal and external factors, including difference in resources and infrastructure,

learning approach, and country specific. Amidst the difference, all of the

institutions face similar problems in teaching Islamic economics effectively,

namely lack of resources, non-standardized curriculum, and less exposure on the

practical aspects of Islamic economics. More attempts must be conducted to deal

with the issues.

1 Author is thankful for the assistance of Sr. Huma Ayub and Br. Mohammed Aliou for some materials in the research.

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1. Introduction

Islamic economics is more than thirty years old now. Although the roots of

Islamic economics can be traced back to the Prophet’s (pbuh) time, the

development of Islamic economics as a scientific modern discipline is believed to

be started only in 1976 with the First International Conference on Islamic

Economics held in Makkah. Similarly, the development of Islamic banking and

finance, a relatively well established area of Islamic economics, is also started in

the early 1970s as a small rural banking in the villages of Egypt. Today, Islamic

banking and finance has developed into a global industry with size of hundreds of

billion dollars.

The development of Islamic economics, banking and finance leads to the need for

high quality human resources, specifically those who are know about the

conventional practices as well as Islamic practices in banking and finance. This is

where education institutions are considerably important. Although attempts to

establish and reform Islamic education have started with the First World

Conference on Muslim Education held in Makkah in 1977, which was followed

by establishment of ‘Islamic universities’ such as International Islamic University

of Pakistan (1981) and International Islamic University of Malaysia (1983), it was

in early 2000s that the education institutions started offering an increasingly

broader spectrum of Islamic economics study programs and training courses.

Master level programs, particularly MBA and MA/MSc programs in Islamic

banking and finance, are among the most popular programs offered by those

learning institutions (Nienhaus, 2007).

Despite the rapid development of the industry and its supporting education

infrastructure, some scholars criticize the current state of development of such

education institutions. They are of opinion that the institutions mainly focus on

producing students according to the market requirements, instead of placing more

emphasis on the development of original ideas from Islamic perspective. In

contrast, many students of Islamic economics higher education are not satisfied

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because the existing education institutions give less emphasizes on the practical

aspects of theories they learn in the class.

In view of these, it has become a noticeable thrust to analyze the problems and

challenges faced by the institutions teaching Islamic economics. In particular,

there is a need to identify approaches to implement the Islamic economics

curriculum worldwide and critically evaluate the current practice of Islamic

economic higher educations. This evaluation should gives better perspective in

seeing how far the teaching and its associated curriculum are relevant to the actual

working of economy, while at the same time is in harmony with the aspiration to

transform these into Islamic economies. These efforts are expected to contribute

in developing, modifying, and designing effective implementation of Islamic

economics education in the future.

To address the issues, this paper is organized as follow. Following introduction,

section 2 reviews the development of Islamic economics educations. Section 3

and 4 evaluate current practices of Islamic economics educations worldwide.

Section 3 evaluates the current practices based on exploratory approach, while

section 4 evaluates the implementation of Islamic economics curriculum in

MBA/MA/MSc programs in Asian, Middle Eastern, and European countries by

comparing various types of courses offered by the programs. Brief conclusions

and recommendations are presented in the last section.

2. Islamic Economics Education

2.1. Development and Approaches to Implement Islamic Economics

Education

The introduction of Islamic economics into university curricula started quite late,

in spite of the enthusiasm shown by the Muslims towards the application of the

precepts that contain the principles of Islamic economics. After the Islamic

economics Conference held in Makkah in February 1976, this subject got more

rooms in university curriculum of various Muslim countries all over the world. In

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general, Islamic scholars suggest that one of the basic aims of all Islamic

economics teaching programs is to train students in traditional economics and

teach them Shari’a/Shari'a related aspects so that they could study and understand

the original sources and answer the questions related to daily life within an

Islamic framework (Azid, 2005). To achieve the goal effectively, appropriate

approaches to teach Islamic economics is considerably important.

According to Thomas and Barnett (in Azid, 2005), two major approaches exist in

the academic institutions for teaching any types of subject. The first approach is

known as the Commodification Approach. The proponents of this approach have

the idea of producing students mainly according to the market requirements. The

second approach is the Originality and Inventing New Paradigm Approach

(known as the New Paradigm Approach) , which raises objection that the

commodification approach endangers academic freedom and minimizes the

university education in society. In contrast to the previous approach, the

proponents of this approach believe that a subject will only develop if we give less

attention to the market dimensions and place more emphasis on the development

of original ideas. Both approaches are prevailing in the current worldwide

education system. The commodification approach, for instance, is commonly used

by business schools nowadays. On the other hand, the originality approach is

usually implemented by disciplines in natural science or schools of thought of

social sciences such as economics school of thought.

In higher education learning institutions, two additional approaches that

emphasize on scope of study can also be observed. The approaches are the Deep

Learning Approach and the Surface Learning Approach. The first approach is of

the view that every topic/course should be based on three layers: presage, process,

and output and, consequently, it should be able to produce a comprehensive

understanding of the discipline. However, this could come at the expense of

longer study duration which, to some extent, does not favorable among students.

This approach has similar emphasizes with the New Paradigm Approach. The

second approach suggests that more topics should be covered within a minimum

time and the student can apply this knowledge in their practical life (Guest and

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Nerina, 2003) and thus has some similarities with the Commodification Approach.

Both approaches are commonly observed in the real life.

2.2. Critics of Islamic Economics Education

At present, following rapid development of Islamic economics, banking and

finance around the globe as well as the need for more quality human resources in

the field, Islamic economics has developed rapidly and become one of the

prescribed subjects in several institutions and universities in the Muslim and the

western world. The development is, however, subject to some critics. One of the

proponents of Islamic economics education who also criticize the discipline’s

development is Siddiqi (1997). He argues that the present state of teaching

economics at the university level in Muslim countries should focus mainly on two

points: how far it is relevant to the actual working of our economics and how far it

is in harmony with our aspiration to transform these into Islamic economies.

In the practical level, he suggests that it is important to have a judicious selection

of the more enduring elements in the corpus of modern economics and handle

them in a critical manner, rather than abandoning teaching of modern economic

theories and their applications in areas such as development planning, public

finance, monetary policy, and international trade. This should be coupled with the

injection of the Islamic policy ends and preferences in the applied areas and a

reference to the actual economic conditions of our own economies, at relevant

points. Further, his observation shows that although Islamic economics is being

taught in the universities of several Muslim countries, the syllabus of this type of

courses require a thorough revision in the light of recent developments in this

subject. Of greater importance is the need to integrate the teaching of Islamic

economics with the teaching of conventional economics. Nothing short of a fusion

of Islamic elements with the valid and enduring elements of modern economics

will answer the need of Muslim. Nevertheless, the evolution process of new

concepts and the adjustment of the ‘old’ concepts suitable to the needs will require

patience and perseverance, besides commitment to the ideals and imagination.

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Another important points highlighted by Siddiqi (1997) is the use of Islamic

(economics) methodology in the light of the progress made so far by Islamic

economists. The courses on contemporary Islamic economics are needed to keep

the student fully posted on Islamic thinking and methodologies in all fields. Some

of these contributions will have found their way in these courses. But there is a

need of giving a view of whatever has been achieved till now by an Islamic

critique of modern economics and by addressing Islamic principles to the actual

problem of economics. A synoptic view enables the student to have a grasp on the

unifying principles and the basic conceptual framework of Islamic economics.

The views highlight the importance of transforming the Islamic values into

Islamic economics education, in our context, and the relevance of Islamic

economics educations with the actual working of our economics.

3. Current Practices and Issues in Implementing Effective Islamic Economic

Education

Based on the perspectives discussed earlier, in section 3 and 4 we are going to

evaluate the current practices and issues in implementing effective Islamic

economics educations. Section 3 uses exploratory approach based on literature

study, while section 4 surveys and evaluate curriculum of various Islamic

economics education programs in Asian, Middle Eastern, and European countries.

Observation of Azid (2005) suggests that the syllabi of Islamic economics and

Islamic studies cover almost all important topics of economics module in most of

Pakistani higher education institutions. The method of teaching in both the

disciplines is similar and normally no technicalities are discussed in the

economics courses. The Surface Learning Approach is applied to Islamic

economics modules. The approach is preferable based on assumptions that it is

sufficient to introduce only the basic concepts of Islamic economics, banking and

finance for students to apply and develop these later in their practical lives. The

Commodification approach has not been applied, however, as reflected by

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minimum efforts in the development of the theoretical aspects. The same model

prevails at all the postgraduate institutes and universities in Pakistan.

Nevertheless, the Commodification approach is used in the micro-level in some

universities. In the faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, Bahauddin

Zakariya University (BZU) Pakistan, for example, an Islamic Finance course

offered is found to covers some basic and practical concepts relating to banking

and finance in the environment of the Islamic system (Higher Education

Commission Islamabad, 2005; Azid, 2005). Implicitly, the development of the

module is based on the idea of commodification. Nevertheless, positive learning

spillovers are still insignificant under this structure primarily because teaching is

more preferable than research and practical works in all post graduate

institutes/universities offering Islamic economics courses. Thus, it can be

concluded that the existing model of teaching of Islamic economics is not

standardized in Pakistan and, consequently, students do not seem to be satisfied

with the teaching as well as the arguments in the favor of Islamic economics.

In the context of Islamic economics teaching, it is also worth highlighting the

experience of Iranian universities in implementing Islamic economics education

after the Iranian revolution in 1978.2 The main objective of the economics

curriculum back then was to have an Islamic worldview and way of thinking

consistent with the fundamentals of Islamic economics (Behdah, 1995). In this

context, Imam Sadiq University (ISU) Iran is a unique experience of

implementing Islamic economics education by following multi disciplinary

program. According to Askari (2005), a very interesting approach used was the

Distant Learning Approach (DLC) in which the ISU center for DLC established

the video conference facilities with IDB partnership.3 In the evaluation aspect, the

2Discussion of Islamic economics, in reality, did not begin in Iran until the revolutionary movement began in 1978. Islamic economics entered the Iranian intellectual arena only in the months before the fall of the Shah. In this context, responsibility for Islamic rejuvenation in the universities was entrusted to the Council for Cultural Revolution. Its mission was to develop an appropriate curriculum and to prepare the textbooks needed to set up an Islamic university system. For more discussion please see Behdad (1995). 3. Under the approach, one week before every lecture the PowerPoint presentation version of the lecture together with its source (related papers) were sent by IRTI for the four centers and later being discussed in the virtual class

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students are required to write a research paper on the subject along with an exam.

Lecturers for DLC are basically the scholars who had researches on their

respective topic and students are allowed to ask questions in the interval of every

session

This approach is developed based on the idea of the Deep Learning Approach, in

which knowledge gain is facilitated or accelerated with the help of IT.

Furthermore, it provides a new channel by which the problem of lack of

international relationship between the centers who are working on Islamic

economics was partially solved. It is further suggested that this type of learning,

combined with more research in Islamic economics, is a more effective means in

implementing of Islamic economics teachings, strengthening international

cooperation among Islamic economics institutions and constructing a more

positive belief in Islamic economic compared to the traditional teaching method.

Yet, some other problems such as the insufficiency of resources (books, papers,

etc) and insufficiency of applied Islamic economics courses remained unsolved in

the institutions.

Another experience is that of the Markfield Institute of Higher Education (MIHE)

in the United Kingdom. MIHE has followed the Deep Learning Approach4 and

planned to start the distance learning program of Islamic economics. Despite of all

these efforts, Azid (2005) mentions that difficulty still exists in Islamic finance

teaching as students’ expectations are very high to learn the practical dimension of

Islamic banking and finance while the courses offered by the institution are not

enough to satisfy their needs.5 He also observes that issues in the teaching of

Islamic economics are generally the same with the other higher learning

institutions namely lack of comprehensive literature that covers all aspects of

Islamic economics, lack of experts and commitment from the senior faculty

4 More elaboration is discussed in part 4 (the worldwide survey results) as we are also use and analyze the institution as our sample. 5 He further argues that the high expectation is closely related to the variation in student’s background. This is because students are drawn from traditional Shariah, economics and finance background. Hence, while they take the same module, the variation in the background can hinder the depth of teaching.

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members. In the existing literature, however, more emphasis is given to the

Islamic finance and less on Islamic economics.

Another perspective worth mentioning in the discussion of effective

implementation of Islamic economics education is the experience of International

Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM). A study by Haneef (2005) analyzes the

Islamic economics curriculum by categorizing the courses offered by the Bachelor

of Economics program into six categories: conventional economics courses,

comparative courses (conventional courses with some Islamic input), Islamic

economics courses, fiqh courses, usul al-fiqh courses, and other Islamic courses

such as sciences of the Qur’an-hadith and methods of da’wah. Following the

categorization, importance of the courses are calculated as share from total

courses needed to complete the program.

His finding suggests that the university implements what is called as

Comparative/Integrative Approach, marked by the existence of comparative

component that attempt to teach economics courses with some Islamic inputs or in

a comparative manner. However, he also mentions the limitation of this approach

in which some of the courses have only been able to have ‘some Islamic input’

rather than a comparative/integrated approach. The reason was partly due to the

lack of human resource with sufficient ability to handle such courses.

Consequently, the institution decided to come up with a decision of providing

strong conventional economics courses with some Islamic inputs rather than

presenting the courses in a comparative manner. Implicitly, this implies that some

courses, especially courses with strong conventional economics literature like

labor economics or econometrics, use the deep learning approach while other

courses use the surface learning approach with some comparative components in

the course’s content.

Other difficulties faced by the institution are related to insufficiency of Islamic

economics materials. Although attempts have been made at the Kuliyyah of

Economics and Management Sciences (KENMS) to undertake a large-scale

research project to produce review articles in various areas of the discipline, the

lack of expertise of academic staff hurdles its real implementation. Hence, the

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importance of educational background and qualification of lecturers6 in the field

should be emphasized.

Overall, the literature suggests that different institutions adopted different learning

approaches for various internal and external reasons. Difference in objective

emphasized and approaches taken in teaching Islamic economics in higher

education, coupled with variations in cross-country education and social-political

systems, lead to different practices of Islamic economics education in different

institutions and countries. However, most of them experience the same problems

in teaching Islamic economics to their students. Some of the most notable issues

are the non-standardized curriculum, insufficiency of resources (lecturers/human

resources, textbook, etc) and less exposure on practical aspects of Islamic

economics.

4. Survey of Islamic Economic Higher Education

4.1. Survey Methodology

In addition to the above studies, in this section we survey the current worldwide

implementation of Islamic economics curriculum in the university master level

programs. The samples are the institutions offering MBA and MSc/MA programs

in Islamic Banking and Finance in Asian, European, and Middle Eastern

countries. Information is primarily collected from internet sources and, in some

cases, from interviews with officers/faculty members of the institutions that

managed to be contacted. Courses are classified by modifying Haneef’s

methodology (2005).

In Haneef’s (2005) classification, the courses are divided into six groups namely

conventional economics courses, comparative courses, Islamic economics

courses, fiqh courses, usul al-fiqh courses, and other Islamic courses. We maintain

the first three courses since they exist in most of Islamic economics program.

Considering some similarities of the course content as well as following the

6 According to his research work most of the lecturers found are mainly conventionally-trained economists interested in Islamic economics/banking issues from a primary ‘fiqh’ approach. Hence, there is an urgent need to upgrade qualification of the human resources.

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presentation of fiqh related courses in the curriculum, we combine the Fiqh and

Usul Fiqh courses into a particular group. Finally, we add one group, namely

thesis writing, which represents the importance of research in Islamic economics

education, as suggested by the New Paradigm Approach.

It is worth to note that some courses may appear as either conventional or

comparative courses, depending on the curriculum content. In some Islamic

universities, conventional courses must include comparative content in the

curriculum while in some other universities distinction is clearly made between

conventional and comparative courses. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, in some

cases curriculum content depends on the lecturers’ ability to ‘insert’ the

comparative component in their class and availability of other resources (Haneef,

2005). Therefore, courses like macroeconomics and microeconomics are

categorized as conventional courses provided that there are no specific Islamic

economics topics mentioned in their syllabus/other related sources. Considering

these variations, some scenarios are possible within a particular Islamic

economics program and this will be explained specifically for the relevant case.

Based on these assumptions, the courses can be classified into six categories

(Table 1). After the categorization, the share of each category is calculated as a

percentage of the degree’s total requirement in order to reflect their importance in

the program.

Table 1

Classification of Courses

No Name of classification Definition Classification code

1 Conventional MBA/MA courses

Courses generally offered by conventional MBA CV

2 Comparative courses Courses that have some Islamic content CP

3 Islamic economics courses

Courses related to Islamic economics IE

4 Fiqh courses Courses related to Fiqh and Usul Fiqh FQ

5 Other Islamic courses Courses related to other Islamic subjects OI

6 Thesis Dissertation or research papers TH Source: Author’s classification

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4.2. Results and Discussion

After surveying various MBA/MA/MSc degrees in the Islamic economics,

banking and finance, we compare curricula of five higher education institutions

offering Islamic economics master program, namely International Islamic

University of Malaysia, Loughborough University UK, University College

Bahrain, International Islamic University Pakistan, and Dadabhoy University

Pakistan.7 Based on the classifications of the course contents mentioned earlier,

we break down curriculum of each institution8 accordingly and calculate share of

Islamic economics courses hold in the total curriculum of the program offered. By

looking at the share percentage Islamic economics courses have in the total

program, we can attempt to analyze the curriculum in terms of how much

emphasis that institution puts on Islamic economics.

Figure 1

Curriculum Break Down, MBA Islamic Banking and Finance

IIU Malaysia

Scenario 1 Scenario 2

Source: Author’s calculation

7 Initially we observe around 15 institutions offering various Islamic banking and finance master degree program. However, only few of them provide detail information over the internet, which we use as the main source of this study. 8 The curriculum lists and the breakdown results are available from the author by request.

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Figure 2 shows the share of Islamic economics courses in MBA Program,

Management Centre, International Islamic University of Malaysia. Scenario 1

assumes that conventional courses do not include comparative components in the

courses’ content, while scenario 2 assumes that some of the conventional courses

become comparative courses due to comparative content in their

teaching/syllabus. The results show that conventional courses dominate the

curriculum with the range of 38% – 62% of the total courses offered, followed by

comparative courses (13% - 31%), Islamic economics courses (19%) and Fiqh

courses (6%). These results support the finding of Haneef (2005) that IIU

Malaysia, after struggle to present the courses in a comparative manner, has

decided to come up with a decision of providing strong conventional economics

courses with some Islamic inputs. Our observation also suggests that the reason

was partly due to the lack of human resource with sufficient ability to handle such

courses. In some cases, although human resources might be (physically) available,

they might not able to adjust the course content optimally if they were attached to

too many ‘administrative’ functions such as executive positions in a

department/administrative offices. Therefore, it is obvious that ‘obligations’ to

adjust the curriculum content must be followed by the adequate provision and

management of relevant resources.

Islamic economics courses and fiqh courses make up approximately one quarter of

the total program. For an MBA program, where students come from various

education and work background, this figure could be considered enough for

students to understand the basic of Islamic economics, banking, and finance.

However, investigation should be conducted to get detail and more insight

regarding this issue. Furthermore, the program also offers thesis as an option

equivalent to two elective courses. However, because most students do not take

this option, we use the two electives courses equivalent in our calculation.

Despite the unpopularity of thesis writing option, recently there is a trend that

more and more students are interested in taking this option. Most of them are

interested to write a case study thesis which involves, in many cases, the

institution where the student works. To some extent, this trend implies students

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attempt to make relevant the courses they take to their work place. Implicitly, this

trend also suggest that students expect the institution to follow the Deep Learning

Approach. This is also a good way to increase students’ understanding of the

Islamic economics concepts as well as to reduce the ‘gap’ between the theoretical

and practical aspects of Islamic economics educations. In the future, the institution

plans to offer their students a case study writing as other alternative to the thesis

writing.

Figure 2

Curriculum Break Down, MA/MBA in Islamic Banking and Finance

Loughborough University UK (2005)9 and University College Bahrain (2007)

Source: Author’s calculation

9 Note that we use the 2005 curriculum for Loughborough University only, because the University did not offer the program anymore today. Some people believe that this unfortunate situation is related to the London Booming case in 2006.

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Figure 2 compares the Islamic economics curriculum in UK and Bahrain.

Loughborough University in UK is a well-established university offering MSc

program in Islamic economics in 1990s, while UC Bahrain is a relatively new

university offering MBA program in Islamic banking and finance in 2006. Both

institutions offer conventional and Islamic economics courses with different

proportion. While the conventional course makes up around 75% of the total

MBA courses in UC Bahrain, it only makes up 42% of the total courses in

Loughborough University. Interestingly, they offer the same percentage of Islamic

economics courses i.e. 17% for each institution. Furthermore, Loughborough

University includes thesis writing (33%) and comparative courses (8%) whereas

UC Bahrain does not include such courses. Finally, only UC Bahrain offers fiqh

courses (8%) among the two institutions.

Although differences in the curriculum structure may be caused by various

factors, our observation suggests that at least there are two major factors behind

the findings, namely the resource availability and learning approach taken in the

teaching. Well-established universities such as Loughborough University usually

have more and better resources/infrastructure (lecturers, learning materials, etc) as

well as strong university ‘culture’ compared to relatively new universities. As

most of the lecturers are not trained in (proper) Islamic economics education,

strong emphasizes is naturally given to the conventional courses, as clearly

reflected in the above figure. Furthermore,

Related to resource availability is strong university ‘culture’. Loughborough

University, being a part of UK education system that puts emphasize on the

importance of research work, includes thesis (research seminar papers) as part of

its Islamic economic program. UC Bahrain, in contrast, does not offer thesis as the

core module. Instead, given availability of resource and its position as a Muslim

country, it offers Fiqh course.

Second, learning approach may also affects the course structure through

emphasize on particular course type. The inclusion of Islamic economics courses

that closely follow the market issues by UC Bahrain, namely (i) practices and

operations of Islamic banking and (ii) sukuk and Islamic mutual funds: structure,

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performance, and management, suggests that commodification approach has been

adopted as the main learning method. Similarly, Loughborough University offers

two Islamic economics courses (i.e. Islamic economics and Islamic banking &

finance) which provide students only with basic understanding of Islamic

economics subjects, suggesting that surface learning approach is adopted by the

institution. Nevertheless, the latter tries to bridge the gap between theory and

practices through thesis writing course.

Figure 3

Curriculum Break Down, MA/MBA in Islamic Banking and Finance

IIU Pakistan and Dadabhoy University Pakistan (2007)

Source: Author’s calculation

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Two Pakistani universities offering MA/MBA degree in Islamic economics

observed in this study are International Islamic University Pakistan and Dadabhoy

University. As shown in Figure 3 above, both universities include conventional

courses, Islamic economics courses, and fiqh courses in their programs. However,

Dadabhoy University adds comparative courses in its offering while IIU Pakistan

does not. The latter seems to put clear distinction between conventional and

Islamic economics courses. In terms of share percentage, conventional courses

make up more than 50% of the total courses and ranks 1st among the group.

Proportion of Islamic economics courses is also relatively the same between the

institutions: 40% and 33% for IIU Pakistan and Dadabhoy University

respectively. Lastly, Fiqh and comparative courses are the courses with smallest

proportion as compared to the other courses.

The relative similarity of curriculum structure between the two universities is

likely due to the fact they are located in the same country. Thus, variations in

cross-country education and social-political systems could be minimized.

Nevertheless, it is also clear that IIU Pakistan stresses the importance of Islamic

economic and fiqh courses more than Dadabhoy University.

Figure 4

Comparison of Curriculum Structure Worldwide (2007)

Source: Author’s calculation

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Figure 4 compares and summarizes curriculum structures of various Islamic

economics education programs. Overall, the results support findings in the

previous sections suggesting that the difference in curriculum structure is mainly

due to various internal and external factors. The factors include difference in

resources and infrastructure, learning approach, and country specific factors.

Furthermore, the institutions with the low percentage share of Islamic economics

courses seem to follow the surface learning approach as well as commodification

approach in order to keep in beat with what the market demands, while at the

same time offers some Islamic economics courses to attract people and add value

to their programs. Yet, almost all of them face similar problems in teaching

Islamic economics, including the non-standardized curriculum, insufficiency of

resources and less exposure on practical aspects of Islamic economics. While

attempts have been done to deal with the issues, the progress has been relatively

slow.

5. Concluding Remarks

Islamic economic, banking, and finance is a relatively well-established discipline

nowadays. The rapid development of the area as well as the related industry leads

to the need for high quality human resources, specifically those who are know

about the conventional practices as well as Islamic practices in the area. However,

this expectation is yet to be fulfilled by education institutions. Some scholars even

criticize the current development of education institution teaching Islamic

economics. In view of these, there is a need to evaluate the current practice of

Islamic economic teaching and identify the problems and challenges faced by the

institutions. These efforts are expected to contribute in developing, modifying,

and designing effective implementation of Islamic economics education in the

future.

The study observes some interesting findings. First, different education

institutions adopt different approaches in teaching Islamic economics education

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program. The most common approaches used are the Commodification Approach

and the Surface Learning Method mainly driven by market demand. Second,

difference in curriculum structure is also observable among five universities

offering MBA/MA/MSc programs in Islamic economics, banking, and finance in

Asian, Middle Eastern, and European countries. Roots of the differences come

from internal and external factors, including difference in resources and

infrastructure, learning approach, and country specific. Amidst the difference,

third, all of the institutions face similar problems in teaching Islamic economics

effectively. Major problems include lack of resources (human resources,

textbook/literature, etc), non-standardized curriculum, and less exposure on the

practical aspects of Islamic economics. More attempts must be conducted to deal

with the issues.

Finally, it is noteworthy to point out that this study also has several limitations

and should be interpreted within its assumptions. Improvement can and should be

made in terms of methodology and data. These efforts require, nevertheless, more

data and resources (including time). Perhaps we need to visit those institutions,

interview students and staff, and if possible perform random audits. This would be

the best way to accurately analyze the effectiveness of Islamic economics

education, which can and should be developed by further studies and researches.

19

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