Duality and Integration: Paradigm Shifts in Islamic Higher Education Policy in Indonesia and Sudan in the Contemporary Era

Abstract

Modern Islamic higher education continues to wrestle with an enduring paradox, the uneasy coexistence between ʿulūm al-dīn (religious sciences) and ʿulūm al-dunyā (worldly sciences). This study explores how two Muslim-majority nations, Indonesia and Sudan, have confronted this duality through distinct yet converging paradigms: integration of knowledge and Islamization of knowledge. Drawing on a qualitative comparative policy analysis, the research examines key documents, national education laws, ministerial decrees, university statutes, curricular frameworks, and scholarly literature, to uncover how each country conceptualizes and institutionalizes “integration.” Comparatively, Indonesia’s model is dialogical, “bottom-up,” gradual, and institutionally adaptive, whereas Sudan’s is declarative, “top-down,” and politically centralized. The contrast underscores how epistemological reform cannot be divorced from the political imagination of the state. Indonesia’s integration thrives on pluralism and negotiation; Sudan’s Islamization sought purity and control. Both, however, face common pressures: globalization, accreditation standards, and the marketization of higher education that continually test the coherence of Islamic knowledge paradigms. The study concludes that the shift from duality to integration is not a linear process but a dynamic negotiation between theology, politics, and modernity. For Indonesia, the challenge lies in deepening integration beyond structure to substance; for Sudan, the post-2019 period offers a chance to reconstruct Islamic higher education free from authoritarian ideology. Ultimately, the cases illustrate that integration, much like faith itself, is an unfinished project, one that must be continually rediscovered in the dialogue between revelation and reason.