THE ROLE OF ISLAMIC DEVELOPMENT BANK
Before going further, I must wholeheartedly say Alhamdulillah, all praises are for Allah SWT alone for all blessings bestowed to us. And especially for this opportunity to meeting you all, especially delegates of IDB in this kick off meeting before IDB appraisal at my institution IAIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya. And may Allah cherish our role model and exemplary figure, the Prophet Muhammad with His mercy and blessing. With this opening may Allah SWT bless our meeting.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Institut Agama Islam Negeri (IAIN) or state institute of Islamic studies of SUnan AMpel was founded mainly by the aspiration of religious scholars in East Java with the expectation to be the centre of excellence for Islamic studies whoch in turn produced generation of ulama not only for east Java muslim community, but also for Indonesian muslim and muslim worldwide. Officially IAIN Sunan Ampel was established by decree of Minister of Religious Affairs on the 31st of October 1961, that is about 49 years ago.
Since its establishment up until today, IAIN Sunan Ampel has served in three aspects of Indonesian higher education services; that is teaching and learning, research, and community development. It has been implemented through our aspiration as a centre for Islamic studies with global vision.
In academic level, we are administering 5 faculties as well as graduate programs spreading in 23 study programs. Our students originate from pesantren (Islamic boarding schools), Islamic high schools, as well as general and vocational high schools. In recent years, we are experiencing steady increase of student application. This year statistic shows that our students are 8038 which is all-time record of our student number. They comprise of 54% female students and 46% are male students. Aside students from east java districts as the majority, there are also students from other provinces and small contingent of overseas students, especially from Malaysia.
Those students are studying in one location during teaching period. Consequently, we must serve them by providing competent and dedicated lecturers. Up to now, we are home to 431 lecturers with various educational and academic levels. There are 21% female lecturers and 79% male lecturers. Lecturers are facilitating the students in their study as well as performing the role as researchers and servants for their community. Research reports are regularly produced as part of intellectual contribution as well as alterative solutions to practical social issues. They are active in promoting their research findings through mass media, printed or electronic.
These teaching staffs are backed up by the legion of 253 non teaching staffs. They perform crucial role in delivering services to students in faculties and units as well as in maintain the running of our institution as a whole.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Admittedly, such potentials have to be supported with sufficient facilities and infrastructures so that we can contribute more to society. Our status as Badan Layanan Umum (BLU) or Public Service Unit since last year which allows us to a degree of flexibility in financial management has motivated us to deliver better services in term of academic and administrative to our faithful stakeholders, the students. This status will drive us toward the creation of high quality of education services which in turn enables us to compete in education market worldwide.
as an initial capital to that global dream, we have signed so far with 40 local and international partners. These networking partners comprises of higher education institutions, NGOs, local provincial and district governments, and profit organizations with similar mission to ours. Of our overseas partners, we have conducted several programs on capacity building, seminars and conferences. However, there has been no financial benefit for us from our international partners.
Being aware of living in this globalized network, we have been developing information and communication technology (ICT) for our academic traffic and interaction among academics and with community at large. Lecturers and students alike use ICT in the teaching and learning process and in publishing their ideas. All of information traffic is on www.sunan-ampel.ac.id, which is web domain of IAIN Sunan Ampel.
This effort alone has led IAIN Sunan Ampel to be listed as internationally acknowledged university. On January 2010, IAIN Sunan Ampel is listed at 7717 of 8000 universities worldwide webomatric version. In this month our position increases at 6023. This rank is the highest of all Islamic higher education institutions in Indonesia. We and Ministry of Religious Affairs are proud of this achievement.
Ladies and Gentlemen
For our bright future, IAIN Sunan Ampel is continuing to improve quality of our educational services to level those reputable universities. This effort is highlighted with the opening of non-Islamic studies programs in our institutions. In the near future, this is a cornerstone to become an Islamic University (UIN) which will accommodate Faculty of Science and Technology, Faculty of Health, and Faculty of Social Sciences. Such future will eventually increase the number of our students in considerable figure.
Such future has to be supported by the readiness of competent human resources and availability of sufficient facilities and infrastructures. On this ground, the support from Islamic Development Bank is crucial. With that support, IAIN Sunan Ampel will conduct reviews of curriculum, capacity building programs, and more importantly improvement of physical facilities and infr