Fourth International Conference on Islam and Higher Education (4rth ICIHE)

 

 Theme:

Producing High Quality Muslim University Graduates: Harmonising Employability and Cultural Literacy Needs  

Dates:

3 – 4 September 2013

Venue:

Holy City of Madinah, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Co-organisers:

MADINAH INSTITUTE FOR LEADERSHIP AND ENTERPRISE (MILE), SAUDI ARABIA
SULTAN OMAR ALI SAIFUDDIEN CENTRE FOR ISLAMIC STUDIES (SOASCIS), UNIVERSITI BRUNEI DARUSSALAM
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED ISLAMIC STUDIES (IAIS) MALAYSIA, MALAYSIA
THE PAHANG STATE FOUNDATION, MALAYSIA
IKIP INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE, MALAYSIA
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ISLAMIC THOUGHT (IIIT) EAST ASIA
 

Co-sponsors:

ISLAMIC DEVELOPMENT BANK, JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA
THE PAHANG STATE FOUNDATION, MALAYSIA

Conference language:

ENGLISH

BACKGROUND

In the last few decades of the post-colonial era, the Islamic world finds itself necessary for a variety of reasons to give increasing attention to the growth and development of its higher education sector. Without any doubt, during this short period, the Islamic world as a whole has recorded remarkable growth in its tertiary education institutions, especially universities. In the case of the more economically developed Muslim countries, this rapid growth has generated numerous issues and challenges pertaining to higher education policies, the ownership and funding of universities and university-colleges, their governance, and the quality and employability of their graduates. There is also the issue of “unfair” competition between public and private universities and university-colleges and performance gap between them that generally tends to favor the latter. Many of these issues are long standing awaiting solutions.

The past three conferences in the ICIHE series have each devoted to one of these contemporary issues in Muslim higher education as a general theme for its deliberation. The First ICIHE (2010) held in Kuala Lumpur addressed the theme “Contemporary Higher Education Needs in Muslim Countries: Defining the Role of Islam in 21st Century Higher Education.” The Second ICIHE (2011) in Kuantan, Malaysia selected the theme “The Empowerment of Muslim Communities in Private Higher Education” for deliberation. The Third ICIHE (2011) also held in Kuantan adopted the theme “The Role of Awqaf in the Development of Islamic Higher Education: The Past, the Present and Future Prospects.” These three ICIHEs have helped to create a better awareness among Muslims in various parts of the Islamic world of the need to understand the nature and scope of the problems the Muslim communities are currently facing in the field of higher education and also resolve them in the light of Islamic social teachings.

The Fourth ICIHE to be held this year (3-4 September 2013) in Medina, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is going to deliberate on the theme “Producing High Quality Muslim University Graduates: Harmonizing Employability and Cultural Literacy Needs.” The choice of this theme is dictated by two major trends in Muslim higher education, namely rising unemployment and the decline of cultural literacy among university graduates. Both trends if left unchecked could have negative implications for the future health of Muslim societies. Paradoxically, the more university education is designed to be specially tailored to meet the needs of the job market the higher the rate of unemployment among graduates becomes. Moreover, this heavily market-oriented university curriculum has undermined the place and role of the humanities and the social sciences, which are traditionally the main intellectual agents of cultural literacy in university education. Without cultural literacy and adequate supply of social scientists imbued with Islamic values, Muslim communities will become vulnerable to the spread of social ills among them. Thus, there is an urgent need to address the issues of employability of graduates and cultural literacy together from a wider societal perspective than currently envisaged.