Department of Economic Islamic Banking of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (EPI UMY) could successfully maintain ‘A’ accreditation even though the party was pessimistic. “We prepared the accreditation process for visitation for 6 months before sending documents to BAN-PT. while waiting for the visitation, we prepared internal visitation. We were pessimistic since the appraisal of the internal visitation was not good. It emerged pessimistic feeling to achieve ‘A’ accreditation again. Then, we required a month extension for the prior accreditation. We endeavored and finally we made it,’ told Head of EPI UMY Syarif As’ad, S.EI., M.SI in an interview on Wednesday (24/6) in his office.
Syarif As’ad continued that his party attempted to optimized the preparation and re-conducted internal visitation for the last month, yet the yield was also not satisfying as what an internal assessor Dr. Nano A that, if the department got ‘A’, it means small A, but if it got B, it means round B. “He uttered that the result was not good. Based on the prediction, we tried to be ready if we had to get ‘B’. I know the endeavor of lecturers, staffs, students, and alumni. They contributed to this accreditation. Moreover, the alumni were full team that they had essential roles in the accreditation process,” he inserted.
Syarif also said that all parties assisting the accreditation process got pessimistic, yet the feeling did not hamper them to pray and expect the best. “Facing a lot of problems, we are grateful to Allah SWT for the occasion to maintain this ‘A’ accreditation. This is also due to the encouragement of lecturers, staffs, students, and university. In fact, we were sincere if we would get ‘B’. However, Allah had the other will. Although this accreditation is a decision of humans, we can do nothing if Allah has taken part on it,” he addressed.
The ‘A’ accreditation was pride and a lesson to “enhance the department. “The accreditation decree was received on 23 June, and then we re-checked the decree. Several universities registered for the accreditation and it was only 5 departments achieving ‘A’. Indeed, Alhamdulillah EPI was in the first place with FH UNDIP getting the highest score. The score we got was as predicted. That was 365, but we got 366,” he informed.
He thought that the accreditation was not easy and the scoring system has changed. There were 5 components of the scoring system but, it now has 7 components. “The comparison was rather different from the prediction. There were 40 sheets to prepare, but now there are hundreds of sheets to prepare,” he mentioned.
Syarif As’ad conveyed that there were strengths and weaknesses of the score. The strengths of EPI UMY were in students’ and lecturers’ activities. These two components contributed to the highest score. “It is inevitable that EPI’s students and lecturers have actively engaged in regional, national, and international activities. Nevertheless, we also had weakness in ratio aspect that the number of students and lecturers are not balanced. I can say that, of departments at UMY, EPI has unequal number. This weakness will be our lesson to foster,” he stated.
Furthermore, Quality Control Bureau (BPM) also assisted the accreditation process. “BPM had a lot of roles since BPM was the hardest to please from the beginning. We were demanded to do a lot of aspects. We often got critics from BPM if there were mistakes. However, the critics did not demotivate us. We are thankful to BPM, indeed, so that we could improve what should be improve,” he uttered.
The accreditation result is expected not to make them self-satisfied because the department should be improved. “We will arrange strategies to overcome the weakness. We will add the number of doctors and limit the number of accepted students at EPI. The limitation was based on the ratio and it is hoped to provide good input for freshmen so that we will have excellent students. It obviously will also encourage the lecturers to attain achievements,” he explained.
Syarif wished that EPI could contribute to bringing into reality the vision and mission of UMY to exist in international level. “I hope that the problems of the 7 scoring components could be faced and the other departments at UMY, particularly at Islamic Faculty, can achieve ‘A’ accreditation. This accreditation was also due to the endeavor of EPI’s accreditation team having the same goal,” he ended.
