Once again, the work of academics from UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta is shaping the development of Islamic Religious Education at the national and international levels. This is reflected in the leadership of Prof. Dr. Eva Latipah, a Professor at UIN Sunan Kalijaga entrusted with leading the Association of Indonesian Islamic Religious Education Study Programs (PPPAII). Under her leadership, PPPAII held its National Congress (MUNAS) alongside the Annual International Conference on Islamic Religious Education (AICIRE) 2026 at the Premiere Grand Tjokro Bandung.

Under the theme “Transforming Islamic Religious Education for National Quality and Global Competitiveness,” MUNAS and AICIRE 2026 brought together professors, lecturers, study program administrators, students, researchers, and university leaders from across Indonesia. The forum served as a shared space for examining the challenges facing Islamic Religious Education while charting its direction for transformation amid shifting education policy, technological development, artificial intelligence, accreditation demands, and global competition.

The forum served as a space for Islamic Religious Education study programs to consolidate their response to the challenge of improving higher education quality. On July 14, 2026, a wide range of strategies were discussed comprehensively, from strengthening academic governance and quality assurance systems to curriculum development, learning innovation, research, scholarly publication, academic recognition, and efforts to strengthen competitiveness toward top-tier accreditation and international recognition.

As Prof. Eva Latipah stated in her opening remarks at MUNAS, PPPAII cannot simply function as an administrative body and a venue for fostering ties between study programs; it must grow into an academic force capable of safeguarding quality, charting the direction of scholarly development, strengthening the capacity of study program administrators, and bridging the needs of universities with national policy.

Also serving as Director of the Center for Integrative and Transformative Studies (CIINTRA) at UIN Sunan Kalijaga, Prof. Eva stressed that transforming the quality of Islamic Religious Education must begin with the courage to conduct an objective assessment: understanding where study programs currently stand, identifying quality gaps, and setting a measurable direction for development. Islamic Religious Education study programs need to move beyond merely fulfilling administrative documentation toward a living culture of quality embedded in governance, curriculum, teaching and learning, research, community service, and student services.

“Synergy between the undergraduate, professional, master's, and doctoral levels is also essential. Each level has its own distinct characteristics and academic mandate, yet all must operate within a single, mutually reinforcing ecosystem of Islamic Religious Education scholarship. Strengthening quality must go hand in hand with implementing Outcome-Based Education, the ethical use of technology and artificial intelligence, developing lecturers' capacity, and expanding national and international collaboration,” Prof. Eva explained.

At the culmination of AICIRE 2026 on July 15, 2026, Prof. Eva again outlined the conference's academic direction, describing it as a forum that does not stop at the presentation of papers, but is instead aimed at strengthening the research ecosystem, publications, learning innovation, and international cooperation in the field of Islamic Religious Education.

She noted that Islamic Religious Education currently stands at a critical crossroads. On one hand, it carries a mandate to uphold values, spirituality, character, and religious identity. On the other hand, it must remain responsive to digital transformation, the advancement of artificial intelligence, changing characteristics among learners, global humanitarian issues, and increasingly complex demands for educational quality.

For this reason, according to Prof. Eva, Islamic Religious Education must not be developed exclusively or in isolation. “Islamic Religious Education must be able to engage in dialogue with psychology, medicine, technology, the social sciences, culture, and various other disciplines. An interdisciplinary and integrative approach is needed so that Islamic Religious Education is not only strong in normative terms, but also capable of responding to the real problems faced by society,” she said.

She also encouraged that research findings presented at AICIRE not stop at being mere conference documents, but instead be developed into scholarly publications, policy recommendations, learning innovations, curriculum development materials, and a foundation for collaboration across universities and countries. In this way, AICIRE can grow into one of the key hubs for advancing knowledge and academic reputation in Indonesian Islamic Religious Education.

For UIN Sunan Kalijaga, these ideas carry strategic relevance, as they align with the integration-interconnection paradigm and the orientation toward scholarly transformation that has long defined the university's academic identity. The PPPAII forum also served as a platform for disseminating UIN Sunan Kalijaga's experiences, ideas, and good practices in the development of Islamic education to the network of universities across Indonesia. (humassk)