Canadian University of Dubai to offer Islamic Banking course

The Canadian University of Dubai (CUD) has added an Islamic Banking specialisation to its Master's of Business Administration (MBA) programme as part of a strategic move in its postgraduate offerings.

The Islamic banking stream takes CUD's MBA specialisation offerings up to five, which include marketing, general management, human resource management and finance.

"CUD has decided to offer the Islamic Banking specialisation on our MBA programme because it has become a very important sector in its own right," said Dr Mohammad Kabir, vice-president of Academic Affairs at CUD. "This offering is a strategic move into an area in demand and with huge growth potential."

Dr Kabir, who has more than 20 years of research and teaching experience in commercial banking, believes the global financial crisis of 2008 turned the spotlight on Islamic banking.

"During the global financial crisis it was only the Islamic banks that did not suffer, while other large conventional banks were declaring bankruptcy," he said. He said people started asking what the Islamic banks were doing right that helped them avoid being hit hard by the crisis. Dr Kabir added that the global crisis saw a renewed interest from the banking and academic community alike in the practice of Islamic banking — a concept that has been around for centuries.

Islamic banking

Dr Kabir defined Islamic banking as a finance model with interest-free transactions as its fundamental principle. "There is not much Islam in it, the basic concepts are profit sharing, risk sharing and venture capital, which are phrases and terms that have existed for centuries," he said. "The word Islam, at times, makes it look like a brand new concept but it's not."

The new specialisation in the CUD MBA programme, which is accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, costs an approximate Dh80,000.

The one-year MBA programme already has 650 students enrolled, however, the response to the new Islamic banking stream has garnered positive response, said Dr Kabir.

Logical assumption

"A large portion of the enquiries have come from people already working in the banking sector," he said. He added that it would be a logical assumption for graduates to think such a degree will increase their chances of success in the Islamic banking field in the Muslim world. However, Dr Kabir believes otherwise.

"I see a very good future in the US and Canada for graduates of Islamic banking," he said. "I've met experts and scholars working here in the UAE's banking sector that have gone to the US to train financiers in Islamic banking."

The CUD MBA programme caters to full-time employees by offering evening and weekend classes. The course is made up of 12 courses in total. However, it is in the last four modules where students will specialise in their chosen field.