Integrating Islamic Education Values to Build Religious Character of Student in Higher Education

Islamic education is urgent to be applied and implemented in higher educations, especially the one under Ministry of Religious Affairs. It is because of many graduates or students still do not know and apply the Islamic education concept. This study aims to describe and explain the Islamic education concept in Islamic higher educations in Indonesia to construct the student religion character. It was a case study conducted in four Islamic higher educations, namely IAIN Tulungangug, IAIN Ponogoro, IAIN Surakarta, and IAIN Salatiga. The data were obtained by analyzing some institution activities and programs, institution visions, student activities, and student perceptions. They were then analyzed with using interactive analysis technique to identify research problems. The result shows that from vision and mission, the four higher educations have proposed the similar concept, namely developing human resource who have the Islamic character. Besides, programs and facilities provided to achieve vision are building the Student Activity Unit (UKM) that concern on developing Islamic science, building some student center research, and conducting Ma’had Al Jami’ah program. Moreover, the internalization of Islamic education values is also carried out in learning process by lecturers and educators in higher educations to create a religious culture among students.