IAIN Sunan Ampel facing more complicated challenges
IAIN Sunan Ampel facing more complicated challenges
By Ainur R. Sophiaan
SURABAYA (JP): The first state university encountered after leaving Juanda Airport is the Sunan Ampel Institute for Islamic Studies. Strategically located on one of this city's thoroughfares, Jl. Ahmad Yani, the institute stands proudly on a nine-hectare plot of land.
Some people believe that this institute for Islamic studies, or IAIN, is one of the few prestigious campuses in East Java. What's more its graduates occupy various respected positions in society throughout the country. They have gone out to pass on what they have learned like the first disciples of Sunan Ampel who were sent to far away places to preach Islam.
"Unlike what some people still believe, the graduates of IAIN Sunan Ampel don't only become modin (religious teachers) in the kampongs," Bisri Sansuri, a former rector who is now a member of the House of Representatives, said. "We have graduates who become journalists, businessmen, officials and members of the Armed Forces."
The institute, which bears the name of the great wali, or religious teacher, now faces challenges which are probably much more complicated than those faced by Sunan Ampel more than five centuries ago.
"This institute should do more intensive research and studies about Moslem issues which are more complicated in nature," Fuad Amsyari, head of the Inter-disciplinary Islamic Studies Institute at IAIN, said.
Established in cooperation with Airlangga University in 1987, the inter-disciplinary institute managed to hold several seminars before disappearing into obscurity. Some sources blame a lack of funds as the reason for its current inactivity.
IAIN itself came into being following the issuance of a 1960 Presidential Decree on Islamic universities. A number of Moslem leaders in East Java agreed to establish a university in the region under the administration of the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
Extensions
In 1961, these ulemas established the schools of education (tarbiyah) and law (syariah), in Malang, East Java. The two schools were considered extensions of the Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University in Yogyakarta, Central Java, at the time.
In 1964, another school, on ushuluddin or theology, was set up in Kediri, East Java. In 1965, based on a Ministry of Religious Affairs' decree, the three schools were merged to become IAIN Sunan Ampel.
The religions minister at the time, Saifuddin Zuhri, was the one who suggested the name of Sunan Ampel. He also suggested that the rest of the 14 IAIN throughout the country be named after the Moslem heroes known as wali.
In the first four or five years of its existence, IAIN Sunan Ampel grew rapidly. It set up 18 schools of knowledge in three provinces: East Java, East Kalimantan and West Nusa Tenggara.
From 1971 to 1975, the issuance of government policies imposing certain standards on universities forced the IAIN Sunan Ampel administration to "liquidate" its five schools located in the cities of Bangkalan in Madura, Pasuruan and Lumajang in East Java, and Sumbawa and Bima in West Nusa Tenggara.
In 1985, another government decree made the administration let go of its tarbiyah school in Samarinda, East Kalimantan. It was merged with IAIN Antasari in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan. Another tarbiyah school, in Bojonegoro, East Java, was moved to Surabaya.
IAIN Sunan Ampel now has 12 schools scattered through the various regencies in East Java and in West Nusa Tenggara.
The institute now lists 5,000 students as enrolled in its undergraduate degree program. Dozens of lecturers with doctorate degrees and a number of professors support its educational programs.
A post-graduate school was set up three years ago. It is housed in a new building to the east of the rector's office.
"This is an encouraging development, because IAIN Sunan Ampel is expected to set a good example of quality education for the other institutes in eastern Indonesia," deputy rector H. Abd. Syukur Hasyim told The Jakarta Post.
The institute is facing competition from the IAIN located in the western part of Indonesia, such as IAIN Sunan Kalijaga in Yogyakarta and IAIN Syarif Hidayatullah in Jakarta.
Syukur Hasyim said the institute expects to increase its student enrollment to 10,000 by the end of the current Five Year Development Plan period in 1999. It also plans to build another campus on a 10-hectare plot of land in Lontar subdistrict, Surabaya.
One of the sources of pride for the institute is the Grand Mosque on the campus of IAIN Sunan Ampel. Dedicated in 1992 by then vice president Sudharmono, the mosque cost Rp 500 million, 90 percent of which was donated by wealthy business men and other individuals.