Islamic Finance study open to non-Muslims, too, says INCEIF head

KUALA LUMPUR: Many people still think that Islamic Finance study is only for the Muslims when it is actually not so.

However, more are beginning to realise that Islamic Finance is a subject that can be mastered by anyone, said Global University of Islamic Finance (INCEIF) president and chief executive officer Daud Vicary Abdullah.

"We recently had 20 Australian chief executive officers learning one of our programmes online and the feedback that we got was that they were unaware that Islamic Finance is something that can be taught to non-Muslims," he said after INCIEF's fourth convocation here on Saturday.

Bank Negara Malaysia governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, who is also INCEIF chancellor, gave away scrolls to the graduates at the convocation.

Daud said since the inception of INCEIF in 2005, there had been 18,000 students and almost half took the courses online.

"We expect to offer online courses for the Chartered Islamic Finance Professional (CIFP) programme in the coming years," he said.

He also said Turkey is now beginning to follow in Malaysia's footsteps in coming up with a sound education system on Islamic Finance.

"They are learning from us and are now looking at the model that we are using in Malaysia," he said.

The fourth convocation saw a record 183 graduates, of which three are graduates in the PhD programme, 18 in Masters in Islamic Finance and 163 in CIFP.

The graduates are from 35 countries, including those from the Gulf area and Africa, Canada, France, Japan, Russia and South Korea.