Singapore College of Islamic Studies: Prospects and Challenges

Singapore is launching a new four-year degree programme to be offered at the upcoming Singapore College of Islamic Studies (SCIS). The college will offer a curriculum that incorporates Islamic Studies and social science disciplines to produce asatizah (religious teachers) who are capable of contextualising religious teachings to the diverse, multiracial fabric of Singapore society. While the SCIS and its degree programme hold some promise, there are potential challenges to be overcome.

On 10 November 2024, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced the details of a four-year degree programme at a forum marking the fifth anniversary of M³ (a collaborative effort between three key community institutions: the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS), MENDAKI and MESRA). First mooted in 2016, it is hoped that the establishment of the SCIS would produce asatizah who can contribute to fields “that include social work and counselling” beyond the religious sector.

Though further details of the college have yet to be revealed, establishing SCIS may offer several prospects. This includes promoting an understanding of Islam that is relevant to the context of Singapore’s society. At present, most Singaporean students pursuing Islamic studies do so in Muslim-majority countries — particularly in the Middle East. The differences between Singapore and these countries often cause a dissonance in the understanding of Islam in the Singapore context. To resolve this issue, MUIS offers the Postgraduate Certificate in Islam in Contemporary Societies (PCICS) to help Islamic Studies graduates understand religious teachings through a Singapore lens.

Compared to PCICS, however, the SCIS presents a more systematic opportunity to offer Islamic studies that is tailored to the minority Muslim population in Singapore, by factoring in local customs and practices. The college, for instance, should introduce an educational paradigm that validates local religious practices such as maulid (celebration of the birth of Prophet Muhammad), and the visitation of shrines which are often forbidden by the Saudi-based Salafi-Wahhabi orientation. More importantly, the SCIS should offer programmes that teach students to be critical of religious texts — especially those incongruent with pluralism, human rights, and civic consciousness that form the basis of secular and democratic Singapore.

Second, the SCIS should offer an alternative educational pedagogy that differs from major Islamic institutions such as the Al-Azhar al-Sharif. These institutions, which emphasise rote learning at the expense of essay writing and research projects, deprive students of the opportunity to hone their writing and research skills, which are useful for future employment. The SCIS can better groom future asatizah by covering these institutions’ gaps and emphasising critical thinking and literacy.

The establishment of SCIS should also be seen as an effort to resolve a longstanding issue of employment confronting Islamic studies graduates. The lack of guidance in madrasahs on the job market for Islamic studies graduates caused many to enter the field without thorough planning for their job prospects.

The establishment of SCIS should also be seen as an effort to resolve a longstanding issue of employment confronting Islamic studies graduates. The lack of guidance in madrasahs on the job market for Islamic studies graduates caused many to enter the field without thorough planning for their job prospects. This results in a “dissonance between their current educational training and the roles they are expected to undertake upon graduation”. The “lack of effective planning for tertiary religious education in Singapore” has caused an oversupply in the religious sector. A lack of job prospects has also caused many to turn to the gig economy.

By offering social science disciplines and other upskilling programmes, the SCIS seeks to make Islamic studies graduates more employable. However, the feasibility of such a goal remains uncertain. The specific emphasis on directing asatizah toward careers in social work and counselling may raise several concerns, as these fields demand not only specialised expertise and training but also a genuine passion for community engagement, given the challenging nature of the work. The competency of SCIS graduates to work in this sector will be under the microscope when they are compared with other social work graduates from local and international universities who specialise in such fields. More importantly, while the SCIS holds promise for addressing employability challenges faced by Islamic Studies graduates, it will only commence operations in 2028. The pressing issues of an oversupply of asatizah and their low salaries demand more immediate solutions.

With the establishment of SCIS, Singapore is primed to follow the footsteps of neighbouring institutions such as the International Islamic University Malaysia and the recently launched Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia as part of a broader regional trend to decentralise Islamic knowledge production. However, how the SCIS will distinguish itself from these institutions remains unclear. To be sure, the unique perspective of the minority-Muslim experience should be leveraged within its Islamic studies curriculum.

While the SCIS is expected to enhance prospects for future local Islamic graduates, it does not address the longstanding need for reforms in the current madrasah education. The persistent emphasis on rote learning in madrasahs, often at the expense of critical engagement with religious texts, remains the fundamental cause of the inability to contextualise religious teachings. A re-evaluation of Islamic studies curriculum and rethinking of madrasah objectives, therefore, remains crucial even with the formation of the SCIS.

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