Berita

Yogyakarta—The academic discussion among students that can provide a useful forum for exchange of ideas and views is perceived to be increasingly crucial. More importantly, when such an agenda was attended not only by Indonesian but also by foreign students, several constructive ideas about academic culture from both sides may likely be discussed. And hence, novel suggestion of improving intellectual capacity of IPIEF students will certainly be translated in the more practical work.

Against that background, Islamic Economics Student Association (IESTAC) hosted a discussion forum on (4/12) that has invited two foreign students, both were Omar El Mesmoudi from Germany and Emre Pinarci from France. In this forum, Omar first explained about his undergraduate programme on business administration which has been in line with Economics in general. He stressed that: “In Germany, Economics is a field of study that has been highly flexible especially for those who will pursue Master degree in other fields, such as Psychology as behavioral economics has currently been associated with it, Politics, Philosophy and other departments. There is such a multidisciplinary approach that enables many academic disciplines to be correlated”.

Having outlined that his university has been a leading institution in France, Emre then added, saying: “Most of the universities in France have many international partners ranging from universities to institutions. As a result, there have been more and more France students involved in exchange programme in which we can afford the historic and exciting opportunity to pursue the promising career in the future.” International collaborations thus have intentionally been promoted to strengthen the mutual understanding among universities and help enhance further the intellectual creativity of the students.

Asked whether the condition of Moslem population as a minority in both advanced countries could publicly perform their religious duty, Omar answered, “Since the Germans regard the religious belief as a private matter there will commonly be discrimination for women who wear hijab in public.” Such discrimination may also be suffered by Moslem in France, Emre said. That condition is somewhat different from Indonesia that has the biggest Moslem population and where the overwhelming majority of Moslem population is living peacefully despite the conflicts within its community that may escalate if not effectively prevented. [Aw]