Rector of UII: Digital Transformation Supports the Quality of Higher Education
The idea of higher education quality in the era of industrial revolution 4.0 that demands graduates to have competitive strength globally has widely been discussed. However, discussion about how a higher education institution must prepare their steps to reach such quality has not been conducted.
Such statement is delivered by the Rector of Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII), Fathul Wahid, S.T., M.Sc., Ph.D. in his role as keynote speaker in discussion panel in The 4th International Conference on Quality Assurance of Islamic Higher Education (IQA Conference) at Hotel Sultan, Jakarta, Monday (28/10). The conference themed Quality Assurance for Higher Education 4.0 in the Islamic World: Learning from the Past and Meeting the Future Challenges is attended by hundreds of high-level officials of Islamic higher education institutions in Indonesia.
“One of the entrance in preparing quality education is through digital transformation in higher education institutions, like what we do in UII,” Fathul revealed. Those digital transformations are the provision of modern technology, standardized infrastructure and services, reliable internet connection, integrated information system, and equal user experience.
“Digital transformation plays an important role in supporting the business process in quality higher education, especially because one of our main stakeholders are millenials who are digital native,” Fathul added.
In his presentation, Fathul conveyed the message that digital transformation in higher education should be formulated for a long term.
“At UII, we attempted to make turnaround so not only that digital transformation can identify the current problems, but also must be capable in predicting problems in the next 20 years,” Fathul revealed.
The discussion is paneled with two other keynote speakers, the Rector of State Islamic University (UIN) of Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, Prof. Dr. Abdul Haris, M.Ag. and Rector of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, Prof. Dr. Hj. Amany Burhanuddin Umar Lubis, Lc., M.A.
In accordance with Fathul, Amany emphasized the importance of higher education quality.
“Quality management has basically been attached to Islamic values,” Amany said. These principles covers several aspects such as honesty, planning, efficiency, muraqabah (monitoring), and muhasabah (accountability).
Meanwhile, Abdul Haris affirmed that Islam society must be inclusive and should be stimulated to be creative. This spirit should be implemented in improving higher education quality.
“Quality education must be supported by stakeholder’s interconnectedness that reinforces one another,” Abdul Haris added. Those stakeholders consisted of qualified graduates in its discipline (murabbi); students who are diligent in worships, competent, and discipline (musyrif); and lecturers who are experts in taklim and Al Qur’an (muallim).
The 4th IQA Conference is held based on the cooperation between Association of Quality Assurance Agencies of the Islamic World, National Higher Education Accreditation Body (BAN-PT), UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, UII Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, and Universitas Islam Indonesia.
