Islamic Economics Higher Education: A Critical Survey

Rahmatina Awaliah Kasri 1

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.

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

1. Introduction Islamic economics is more than thirty years old now. Although the roots of Islamic economics can be traced back to the Prophets (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

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

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 Sharia/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

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 disciplines 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.

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

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

Discussion 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

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 Approach 4 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

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 students 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.

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 Quran-hadith and methods of dawah. 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 courses 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 lecturers 6 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 Haneefs methodology (2005). In Haneefs (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
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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 degrees total requirement in order to reflect their importance in the program. Table 1 Classification of Courses
No 1 Name of classification Conventional MBA/MA courses Definition Courses generally offered by conventional MBA Courses that have some Islamic content Courses related to Islamic economics Courses related to Fiqh and Usul Fiqh Courses related to other Islamic subjects Dissertation or research papers Classification code CV CP IE FQ OI TH

2 Comparative courses 3 Islamic economics courses

4 Fiqh courses 5 Other Islamic courses 6 Thesis

Source: Authors 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 institution 8 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: Authors calculation

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: Authors calculation

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: Authors 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: Authors 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.

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