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In Indonesia, memorizing Quran gets some students into university
Ability to memorize the Islamic holy book gives many students equal standing with those who have high grades or are talented athletes in the predominantly Muslim country
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A man reads Quran at a mosque in Jakarta during Ramadan. (The Jakarta Post/Wendra Ajistyatama)
F
or some youths in Indonesia, reading is a virtue that goes hand-in-hand with religiosity. Taught to read the Quran when they were children, some have grown up memorizing up to 30 chapters of it. Now some universities are valuing their hard work.
State universities are offering test-free entrance to hafiz (Quran memorizers) through their "achievement path" programs, in which high-achieving students in academic and arts fields can skip the regular joint entrance tests and university-administered entrance tests. The program can account as high as 11 percent of the seats provided by each university. The chosen hafiz are among them.
In recent years, more universities have been allowing hafiz to apply for the program, including top universities like the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) in Bogor, West Java, and the University of Diponegoro (Undip) in Semarang, Central Java, which the latest QS World University Ranking placed as the country's fourth and eighth best universities respectively.
"We are trying to balance academic and religious lives on campus, in hope that the hafiz who commonly have a strong religious understanding will take part in it. Therefore, while we keep improving academic quality, we also try to maintain students' spirituality," Undip spokesperson Nuswantoro Dwiwarno told The Jakarta Post.
Undip started receiving hafiz applicants in 2016 as part of its administered entrance test, which previously only covered the academic and arts fields. Only two hafiz applicants were accepted then, but three were taken in 2017 and the number jumped to 14 in 2018.
Nuswantoro said that the university treated hafiz just like any other applicants of the achievement path program, which does not require any written tests. The selection committee also takes applicants' academic reports and portfolios into consideration.
The university assigns clerics to assess the hafiz, who are required to memorize a minimum of 20 of the holy book's 30 chapters.
