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Memorizing Quran gets students into university
For some youths in Indonesia, reading is a virtue that goes hand-in-hand with religiosity
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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.
“They can apply for any major they want to get into,” he said, adding that Undip does not have an Arabic studies program.
The IPB started receiving hafiz applicants in 2017 through its achievement path program, called the PIN, which also covers other types of achievements. Spokesperson Yatri Indah Kusuma Astuti said the PIN program did not require any written tests, but took into account applicants’ academic records.
According to its official website, applications are open for any major in the agricultural studies university. It gives hafiz who memorize 30 chapters of the Quran the same extra points given to international-level Olympiad winners, while those memorizing between 15 and 29 chapters get the same extra points as national-level Olympiad winners.
Students accepted in the PIN program account for 0.5 percent of around 4,000 seats provided by the university. Last year, it accepted three hafiz applicants.
Sebelas Maret University (UNS) in Surakarta, Central Java, has applied a similar scheme since 2012.
“We first assumed that hafiz would make bright students because they could memorize so much at a young age. The assumption turns out to be true as we evaluate their academic performances annually. Their GPA [grade point average] is 3.2 on average and many of them also graduated cum laude,” said UNS former rector Ravik Karsidi, who headed the university from 2011 to 2018.
The university has accepted about 150 hafiz applicants since 2012 who enrolled to study various majors, including Arabic literature, he added.
Aside from the mentioned universities, a number of colleges also started offering similar schemes, such as the University of Surabaya (Unesa) in East Java in 2018 and Jambi University in 2016.
Special admissions offered to hafiz have garnered mixed reactions, with some questioning whether similar offers should be provided to students of other religions.
Saiful Umam, a researcher at the Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) in collaboration with Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN), said the policy came out of rising conservatism in Indonesia.
He said such a policy was discriminatory and uncalled for, given that the universities were funded by the state. Hence, they should treat students of all backgrounds equally.
“If memorizing the Quran is deemed an achievement, then just like sports and arts that aren’t religious, the university should offer a similar opportunity to students of other religions who memorize their holy books,” Saiful said.
He also questioned the universities’ officials’ reasoning for creating such a policy, alleging that it was made to favor students from schools affiliated with Salafism and the tarbiyah movement, to expand certain Islamic communities on campus.
Salafism is an ultra-conservative movement within Sunni Islam originating in countries like Saudi Arabia, while tarbiyah is a religious educational movement inspired by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Schools linked to these movements usually offer tahfiz (memorizing the Quran) programs that do not require students to memorize all 30 chapters, he said.
“There is also no direct correlation between memorizing the Quran and possessing a better understanding of Islam because memorizing doesn’t necessarily mean understanding Quranic interpretations,” Saiful said.
Universities denied that conferring merit on hafiz is discriminatory.
“If other religions have a similar memorization tradition, we will certainly provide the students with similar offers as well. The UNS is the only university to provide worship places for all six religions. We appreciate diversity,” Ravik said.
The Research and Technology Ministry’s director general for learning and student affairs, Ismunandar, dismissed claims that such special offers were exclusive to Muslim students.
“Achievements may vary and being a hafiz is one of them. The tradition of memorizing a holy book is probably only unique to Islam, but state universities have also accepted church choir members or church musicians,” he told the Post.
