Assessing the Need of Islamic Economics Curriculum In the Nigerian Universities: The Case of Bayero University, Kano

Abstract

The persistent deterioration of trust among managers of the economy in one hand and the declining confidence level of the public on economic and financial institutions in the country calls for the need to assess the type of economic graduates Universities in Nigeria produce. In other words, does our Universities produce economists that are skillful in the industry but lacks ethical as well as moral values? To answer these questions there is need to examine the University curriculum so as to know the existence or otherwise of courses that enhance skills and those that enhance values. The objective of this study therefore is to assess the need for Islamic economics curriculum that contains sufficient courses for not only building graduate economic and analytical skills but also the courses that are relevant for ethical development of a graduate. Bayero University Kano, though not an Islamic University per se but is well rooted in the values of Islam historically and in the programmes the University offers to students from various field of Islamic revealed knowledge. The paper being exploratory in nature gathers data from both primary and secondary sources. The primary data was gathered from survey of the respondents that include both academic staff and students of the Department of Economics, B.U.K. The secondary data will be sourced from books, contemporary articles, conference proceedings, reports and curriculum of the department as well as Islamic economics curriculum from relevant Universities in the Muslim world. Based on logistic Regressions, the findings from this study show that there is need for Islamic economics curriculum to improve the ethical and moral stand of the students, especially after graduation. The result paves way for updating economics curriculum for the Bachelor of Science Economics and sheds some lights to other Universities that share the same characteristics with Bayero University Kano.                                                                                                                                                                            ,