MENIMBANG KEMBALI PENDEKATAN KAJIAN KEISLAMAN DI PERGURUAN TINGGI AGAMA ISLAM
ABSTRACT: Insight on the
progress of the PTAI (Institute of Islamic Studies) in Indonesia so far
involves many things; the disorder of epistemological basis of the PTAI, the
direction of global policy in structuring the curriculum, the recruitment of
stakeholders, then standardization of the quality of graduates, and
institutional holder. One thing that seems to be the consensus among observers
is the lack of quality of PTAI’s graduates. However, so far there is no
consensus among the thinkers, policy makers as well as the PTAI’s functionaries
about how to solve this problem. In the midst of diversity discourse about it,
stood out a solution that is much in demand by PTAI’s functionaries, namely the
transition of institutional status, from the STAIN to the IAIN, and over from
the IAIN to UIN. This paper tries to trace the historical roots of the founding
the PTAI in Indonesia to find their main tasks. Results of the search was used
as a foothold to reflect on the PTAI’s performance today. This paper finds that
since their establishment, Islamic higher education institutions is to bring
two tasks, namely as a religious institution and as a scientific institution.
In the course of history, sometimes these two tasks go hand in hand, but often
both were at opposite position. At one point, Islamic studies at the PTAI took
the tendency of normative idealistic-theological approach abandoning the
academic approach. Then in the last few decades came the openness, which
presented the empirical and academic study of Islam. This paper concludes that
the transformation or institutional reform of the PTAI’s status is not the
answer to the problem of Islamic studies, but the more important is realignment
of the structure of sciences in the PTAI which is the foundation for the
interdisciplinary study on Islamic dogmas. The quality of graduates is expected
to be flown with a firm decision, whether PTAI will be academic, preaching, or
practical-pragmatic interests institutions.
Penulis: Syamsun Ni'am
Kode Jurnal: jpperadabanislamdd110303
