Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

Regarding to opening and launching new concentration in sharia finance management, Master of Science and Doctoral Program Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) held open house and seminar on Tuesday (9/6). Seminar which entitled "Sharia banking and stock market prospects in Indonesia" is located in BRI Auditorium, Master of Science and Doctoral FEB UGM Building.

Speakers of this seminar are Fikri Ausyah from Sharia Banking Department of Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK) and Irfan Noor Riza from Education Division of Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) Yogyakarta representative. Moderator of this seminar is Mamduh M. Hanafi, M.B.A., Ph.D, Deputy Head of Non-Academic Affairs and Manager of Master of Science and Doctoral Programs in Management FEB UGM. Participants that fulfilled all seat in that building shows the high enthusiasm.

In this seminar, speaker discussed about the bright prospects of sharia finance in Indonesia, especially in career prospects. Nowadays, sharia finance field still has a lack of competent and skilled human resources. "Sharia finance needs more human resources that expert in sharia compliance". "Most of human resources in sharia banking come from undergraduate in business economics major by 38%, while only 2% from master degree," said Fikri Ausyah. Sharia finance needs approximately 6.700 human resources/year.

Human resource quality and quantity is the main obstacle in developing sharia finance in Indonesia today. Many people think that sharia finance practice is hard to do and rather complicated that conventional finance. "Actually, sharia finance practice is simple if have sharia knowledge, skill, and attitude" said Fikri. Furthermore, sharia finance implementation in Indonesia will give big impact to economy. Because, sharia finance returns money function from money as commodity to money as medium of exchange that gives the real justice for everyone.

Besides, sharia stock market is more dynamic lately. Irfan Noor Riza said, “It is just like a customer in food court that has various option to buy, IDX today gives two option, namely "halal" investment and 'haram' investment. Islam religion as majority religion of Indonesian people should make 'halal' investment more favorable".

However, once again, human resources become the main obstacle. To analyze an investment should be identified as "halal" or "haram", it needs a human resource that mastering sharia compliance knowledge. By this way, "halal" investment option will be increased, so investor can easy to choose, especially local investor. Government should push local investor because 60% investment in IDX is come from foreign investor.

Answering this challenge, Master of Science and Doctoral Programs FEB UGM is officially launched Sharia Finance Concentration in Study Program Master of Sains of Management for academic year 2015/2016. Study process will be begun on September 2015. Alumni of this program is expected to have deep comprehension and wide perspective about financial services industry in Indonesia both sharia perspective and conventional perspective.

Mamduh M. Hanafi, M.B.A., Ph.D conveyed, "As the first economics and business faculty in Indonesia which get international accreditation from The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International, we hope we can give significant contribution by conducting learning process and research in finance sciences field and sharia banking to advance and support sharia finance industry and also Indonesian economic growth. For the next, we also hope we can cooperate with national/international institution, the best university in sharia finance field through organize some seminar, conference, research, and publication".

Sources: Ibe/FEB