Based on Decree of National Accreditation Agency for Higher Education (BAN-PT) No. 0104/SK/BAN-PT/Akred/D/III/21016, Doctorate program of Islamic Politics – Political Sciences of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) achieved ‘A’ accreditation which has been valid from 5 March 2016 to 5 March 2021. It is an honor because it is the only one program of Islamic Politics – Political Sciences in Indonesia and is accredited ‘A’.
“Doctorate Program of Islamic Politics is a program engaging Islamic political studies. This is the strength of the program,” told the Director of Doctorate Program of Islamic Politics, Prof. Tulus Warsito in an interview on Graduate School of UMY on Wednesday (6/4).
Even though the doctorate program was just established in 2007, the program has been enabling to foster quality of education, community services, research, and student activities. “Students’ and lecturers’ research contributed quite high score of accreditation grading components. Thus, this department has been focusing on how the lecturers and students always enhance their research in both national and international levels,” he conveyed.
He mention the doctorate program subject study areas like states, power, government, international relations, peace, public policy, political party, social organization, mass media, conflicts and peace, and gender. “The department concerns with the subject study areas in Asia with empirical and contextual approach,” he said.
The other factor was the facilities like Ahmad Syafii Maarif School of Political Thought and Humanity (ASMS), Jusuf Kalla School of Government (JKSG), Mahathir Global Peace School (MGPS) and Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR).
To escalate the quality and to be the center of doctorate program of Islam in Southeast Asia and international level, the program has cooperated with a number of overseas universities. “The program cooperates in visiting professor, Sabbatical Leave, joint research, international conference, and student exchange with Mindanau State University, Illigan Institute of Technology, Thammasat University, Khon Kaen University, Korea University, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and Universiti Utara Malaysia.
Prof. Tulus said that the accreditation score obtained by the program was beyond the expectation. “The team preparing for the accreditation was pessimistic before the accreditation documents was handed in the assessor. It was predicted that this program would get 355 out of 360 so that the team could enhance what to improve. Alhamdulillah, this program gained 367 that this score is quite high,” he expressed.
Indeed, the accomplishment was due to the support of various parties. Prof. Tulus hoped that students in Southeast Asia be interested in studying Islamic Politics at UMY, and the doctorate program could attain Southeast Asia accreditation. “I wish that this doctorate program could maintain ‘A’ accreditation and could attract international students to study Islamic politics. Besides, international research would be essential to sustain the ‘A’ accreditation in 2021,” he expected.
