Located at the Senate Room of Universitas Negeri Malang on Friday (30/9), signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between Saudi Electronic University (SEU) and 45 Indonesian universities and Islamic boarding schools was conducted. Universitas Gadjah Mada that has Arabic study programme participates in the signing.
This is aimed to improve the quality of learning Arabic online in Indonesia, particularly UGM. The cooperation also covers Test of Arabic as Foreign Language (TOAFL) that can be accessed for free by UGM academic community.
Rector of SEU, Prof. Dr. Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, said the cooperation between his university and Indonesian universities was aimed to enable non-native speakers to speak Arabic well. SEU gives opportunities for Indonesian universities to do distant learning through the internet that knows no space and time boundaries.
Prof. Imam Asrori, Chairman of Ittihadu Mudarrisi al-Lugah al-‘Arabiyyah (IMLA), said this cooperation was a big and important event. It reflects an important episode in the Arabic learning history in Indonesia.
"This good cooperation has the central role in spreading the computer-based Arabic learning,” said Imam Asrori.
Eventually, the cooperation will be able to increase the Arabic learning quality in various aspects in Indonesia. Under this cooperation, UGM students can follow the learning process that is given not just by lecturers in class, but also Arabic native speakers online.
"This cooperation also allows the students to have choices to improve their Arabic command and measure the levels of their Arabic,” said Imam Asrori.