UAI opens its doors to prospective students

UAI opens its doors to prospective students

JAKARTA (JP): The Al-Azhar Islamic School Foundation's newly-
founded University of Al-Azhar Indonesia (UAI) is opening its
doors to prospective students, regardless of their religion, a
foundation executive said on Monday.

Chairman of the foundation Moeslim Aboud Ma'ani said at its
headquarters on Jl. Sisingamangaraja in Kebayoran Baru, South
Jakarta, that registration for the current academic year started
on Aug. 8.

"Lectures will hopefully begin on Sept. 23," he said.

The first batch of UAI students will temporarily use part of
the eight-floor building currently used by Al-Azhar kindergarten
to high school students in the 4.7-hectare Kebayoran Baru
complex, Moeslim said.

A separate UAI building, financed with an investment of some
Rp 17 billion (US$2 million) is to be constructed at the complex
on a two-hectare plot near the Al-Azhar mosque. It is expected to
be completed in 2002, he added.

Al-Hazar's Kebayoran Baru complex is home to a kindergarten
and an elementary, junior and senior high school. They attract
thousands of children, mostly from wealthy families who can
afford to pay the high school fees.

The new university's rector is former state minister of
research and technology Zuhal.

It has six schools, namely engineering, maths and sciences,
economics, education, literature and religious studies.

Moeslim estimated that UAI would be able to accept at least
2,000 of the students who graduate from the five Al-Azhar senior
high schools yearly.

The foundation runs 63 schools, including 24 kindergartens, 23
elementary schools, and 11 junior high schools, spread over the
provinces of Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java and West
Kalimantan.

Zuhal said that UAI students have to pay Rp 2 million for
admission, Rp 1.5 million for tuition per semester and Rp 40,000
for each credit unit taken.

He said tuition fees at the university were much lower than
the Rp 7 million paid by parents of children at the Al-Azhar
kindergarten.

English and Arabic will be the medium for all subjects from
the second year, he said.

Compulsory English and Arabic classes taken by first-year
students will be taught by native speakers.

Syofyan Saad, chairman of the university's founding team, said
that like other Al-Azhar schools, the university would be open to
non-Muslims.

"UAI also provides scholarships for students willing to learn
sciences, which have so far been neglected by the government,"
Syofyan said.

The new university has nothing to do with Al-Azhar University
in Cairo, Egypt.

"Our relationship with it is solely spiritual. But anyway,
we've informed it about possible cooperation," Moeslim said.

The money for the construction of the UAI campus has come from
local and overseas donators, he said. (01)