Why MBA degree in “Islamic business and finance”

MBA degree even, even with a focus on Islamic business and finance, in the first place, has to be MBA degree as it is understood in the contemporary academic and business world. The additional component in the degree refers to the capacity of the degree holders to lead, build and manage also the businesses and financial institutions that opt to operate on Islamic principles. This would be taken care of in the designing and teaching of curricula. While the curricula for MBA with focus on Islamic business and finance has to include specific courses on application of Shari’ah and Fiqh in the business and financial and financing operations and a couple of courses on contemporary theory and practice of Islamic banking and finance, but this is not the real difference in the academic programs of the two types of MBA degrees. The real difference lies in the approach in delivering the course material. The delivery aims at developing the students’ capacity to view the contents of all the courses in Islamic perspective as well and independently think and visualize the possible alternatives where the conventional tools and concepts taught during the courses seem to conflict or ignore the Islamic principles and system of life.

How MBA Degree from RCIB will be different ?

A misnomer in the context of university education in the area of Islamic business in general and Islamic business and finance (including Islamic banking) in particular is that adding a couple of courses on Shari’ah related matters in Islamic business and finance in the conventional MBA programs would make the MBA degree holders properly to meet the human resource requirements of the institutions involved in Islamic business and finance. This approach has been adopted by several educational institutions claiming to be offering degrees in Islamic Banking and Finance but this approach has not been able to provide Islamic finance industry the required manpower that would take it to the grass root level as much as the conventional finance banking and finance industry has reached to. Bulk of the growth that is boasted by the Islamic finance industry is in wholesale banking and finance sector. The clients of the retail banking are not really convinced, what Islamic finance industry is providing is really Islamic finance. Staff of the Islamic banks is not really trained to explain, in what sense Islamic finance industry is Islamic when their products and instruments are found no different, in form as well as in substance, from those of conventional banks. Pakistan is a typical example to prove this point. Islamic banking has been introduced in the country on popular demand (expressed through the mandate of many grass root political parties). Now that Islamic banks have been established in the country, the clientele of Islamic banks have not been able to substantially attract customers from the conventional banking. The general impression among the public is that Islamic banks are not doing things differently to show their Islamic face. Such an impression is created most often by the staff of Islamic banks that themselves do not understand nature and substance of Islamic finance and hence are unable to satisfy their customers about the Islamic contents of their product. Since the students are mostly taught conventional courses without the context of Islamic principles of finance and Islamic finance courses are taught in isolation of the ground realities, such degree in Islamic banking and finance is not proving very helpful to the Islamic finance industry. In most cases the students graduate from their universities carrying negative impressions for Islamic banking and finance

Islamic finance industry, therefore, has to depend on Shari’ah scholars to give fatwa about the Shari’ah compatibility of their products and hence to convince their clientele about the Islamic nature of their banking operations. However, in the presence of wide diversity in Fiqh opinions, and the staff of Islamic banks not being not fully conversant with this diversity and its implications for the concept of the Islamic finance and the underlying Shari’ah rulings, the management and staff of Islamic banks is unable to put their Islamic products in right perspective and to the satisfaction of their clients.

Similar is the case with Islamic businesses other than in the area of banking and finance. Though the businesses are not obliged to maintain a Shari'ah board, nor they need it. What they need is a team of business managers and finance experts to run their business without violating Shari'ah and following Islamic values and Islamic principles of management, governance and financial dealings. No institutions

Objective of RCIB MBA

The curriculum of RCIB MBA programs is designed to prepare the students to lead, build and manage enterprises and institutions that create value for the society by choosing to operate their business on Islamic principles and ethical values in a dynamic economy at home as well as in the global financial market. All the programs are meant to develop the vision of the students to think independently about the modern rapidly changing financial environment. The MBA program has been designed to build up the capacity of the students to add new scientific dimensions in leading and managing the institutions and enterprises of modern economies. Fostering a strong awareness and commitment to ethical values of Islam and understanding the significance and impact of their application in modern business operations and decision making and promoting the ethical business practices and hence developing ethical society at large are important elements of the strategy adopted in the academic programs of RCIB.

This program has been made comparable, in scope, coverage and quality with the graduate studies in business faculty of any university of international repute and are claimed to be the unique and rewarding program with following features.
Along with the training in standard methods and tools of business and finance, our student will have additional rigorous training in theory and application of Islamic business and finance.

The course work has been designed to give the students access to conventional finance industry as well as Islamic finance industry at national as well as global level where the Middle East and European financial centers are witnessing fast growth in Islamic financing industry generating high demand for human resources qualified in Islamic business and finance. MBA of RCIB will be rewarding in all the Worlds.


Rationale for MBA from RCIB

Any academic centre that is geared towards providing a conventional MBA degree in conventional banking may not be the right place to offer such degree for several reasons. It is clear from the above discussion that the students as well as teacher in a degree program in Islamic business and finance need to have an academic background and career objectives different from those seeking or teaching conventional MBA degree programs. The two environments may not mix. Secondly, degree requirements for Islamic business, banking and finance will require substantially more efforts simply because the students will have to learn all what a conventional MBA degree holder is required to learn plus what would make them a leader and manager especially for Islamic banks and financial institutions with the knowledge of Shari’ah, Fiqh, the theory and practice of contemporary Islamic banks and financial institutions, Islamic principles, concepts, objectives and tools of management, local and global issues in the management of Islamic financial institutions and the features of Islamic economic and financial system in totality. Though the work load for students and teachers in this program is not more than the normal workload as internationally recognised in world renowned institutions of higher learning, yet this will not be very much in line with the current MBA programs in most of the universities in the country. It will not be possible to keep two standards at one institution. Finally, Islamic banking and finance cannot be seen and understood in isolation of the overall Islamic approach to business and markets. Education in Islamic business and finance has to be a part of education in Islamic Business. An Islamic Business Centre can provide the right environment for education in Islamic banking and finance in conjunction with other aspects of Islamic business. At RCIB, students get an integrated picture of what they need to learn and what specialities they need to acquire if they have a conviction to work for Islamic business and finance.

In general, the objective is to contribute to the capacity of the country to produce human resources for the national as well as global business and financial institutions. Specifically, however, the objective is to produce qualified personnel for Islamic finance industry at home and abroad. Education in Islamic business and finance is one of the most important requirements for giving business communities in the country human resources capable to operate their business according to Islamic principles without losing their competitive position in the market place.



RCIB MBA

MBA in Islamic Business and Finance, a two and a half year program, is geared towards preparing students in the areas of Business, Finance and Islamic Law. The students’ insha’Allah will be trained into reading and comprehending the knowledge from the original Islamic sources. The students will be equipped with providing professional education not only in Islamic Shariah and finance, but also in such areas as Business Decisions, Business Management, Conventional Finance and Financial Operations, Risk Management, Economics, Private Equity, Real Estate, Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprise, and other areas of interest to Business and finance.

While the program will provide ample business and employment opportunities in Financial and Banking Industry (with Islamic perspectives and solutions), the program will also provide business and employment opportunities in the areas like Real Estate, Investment Management, Corporate Finance, Private Equity, micro enterprise etc.

The degree requirements for the program are as follows:

Completion of 90 credit hours with minimum of CGPA 3.0 (See the table on grading and evaluation criteria, later in this document)

Admission Requirements

MBA

1) A four year Bachelor’s degree or Minimum 16 years of education resulting in a Master’s or Bachelor’s degree from an HEC recognized university

2) Relevant experience, preferably in management, accounting or finance

3) Two recommendations letter, one most preferably from the employer commenting on the applicants capacity and potential to advance in the profession of business or finance and the second most preferably from a teacher who can comment on the student’s comprehension, analytical ability, leadership qualities and personal traits. Both the recommendations should be confidential and reach the Admissions committee.

4) For experienced persons GMAT is required without any scoring requirements. It will be, however, one of the important elements in the decision to approve admission.

5) Limited seats are available for students without experience, but minimum requirement on GMAT is 600.


Minimum GPA Requirement to stay on Roll
During the stay at RCIB student shall be required to maintain CGPA of 2.5 on the scale of 4.00 to remain on roll. If a student maintain the required CGPA but still fails to pass required courses he/she will be allowed to repeat and clear the course(s). At the end of every semester GPA will be computed including the enrolled summer semester.

Internship Evaluations

Internship during summer is permissible and encouraged for full time students only. Internship can be evaluated and awarded credit hours according to the RICB scheme for internship for full time students. Internship supervisor will keep contact with the student and the organization to get feedback about the performance of the internee is also obtained from the supervisors of the internee.

Students undertaking an internship during the summer semester will generally not be allowed to register for any course. However, exceptionally, students may be allowed to remove deficiency in one course during the summer semester.

Withdrawal from the course

Full-time students are allowed to withdraw from one course in a semester if such withdrawal helps the student in improving his/her performance in the remaining courses. The withdrawal must be sought according to prevailing rules. Withdrawal from a course is not treated as a failure.

Policy for credit transfers

RCIB has no policy for transfer of credits.

Curriculum

The curriculum consists of

Core Requirement

There are two types of core requirements
1) Common Core
2) Elective Core

Common Core

This includes a set of courses required to be taken all RCIB MBA students. These courses give the students a strong core to enable them to develop the body of knowledge in different areas of Islamic business and finance. The common courses include:

Elective Core

The concept of elective core has been introduced to provide flexibility to the students in building their own core. The body of knowledge in business and finance has expanded recently in many directions. Introducing the Islamic dimensions further broadens the field of knowledge. With such a broad based body of knowledge a narrow core will not prepare the students to broaden their professional strength accordingly. In order to give the opportunity to the students to broaden their core and hence to develop the body of knowledge in the area of their choice according to their aptitude and career plan, the core has been broadened, part of which has been kept flexible. Four fields are being offered for selecting the Elective Core. The student will select one course each from the list of courses in the following four Elective Core areas
1) Governance and Regulations
2) Business Management
3) Financial Markets
4) Risk Management
5) Specialized Institutions