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ICT Implementation Barriers and Organizational Is-

sues in Islamic-based Higher Education Institution:

The Case of Syarif Hidayatullah

State Islamic University (UIN) Jakarta

M Qomarul Huda Department of Information System Faculty of Science and Technology State Islamic University (UIN) Jakarta,

email : mqomarul@gmail.com

Husnayati Hussin Kulliyah of Information and Communication Technology International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM),

email: husnayati@kict.iiu.edu.my

Abstract - Nowadays, most Higher Education Institutions

(HEI) rely on Information and Communication Technology

(ICT) for all aspects of their activities such as administration,

teaching, learning and research services. Even though the adop-

tion of ICT in higher education has been extensive since mid

1990s, it has failed to produce the radical changes in learning and

teaching. While many studies have been conducted on ICT usage

in higher education especially in the developed countries, similar

studies in the context of Islamic-based higher education institu-

tion (IHEI) are scarce. IHEI are unique institutions because its

mission and vision are based on Islamic teachings and values.

While it is well recognized that ICT implementation is a complex

process, planning its use in the context of IHEI posed a greater

challenge due to the cultural factor and the negative attitude to-

wards the technology. This paper presents the analysis of ICT

implementation barriers and organizational issues at UIN Jakar-

ta, as a case study of an Islamic-based higher education institu-

tion in Indonesia. The findings revealed that the barriers include

aspects related to organizational constraints, technological con-

straints, IT management problems, individual and cultural fac-

tors. While most factors are common, the aspect of organization-

al culture factor that relates to its being a religious institution is

unique to this HEI.

Keywords: ICT, ICT implementation, Islamic based higher

education, organizational issue.

I. INTRODUCTION

ICT implementation in higher education is not trivial

process, it is however a process leading to a number of chal-

lenges and problems, as in [1]. Moreover, supporting ICT in-

novation in higher education has been the repetition of a large

number of failures. Even though there are several examples of

a successful transition from the pilot phase to the implementa-

tion phase, it appears that in practice, it is quite difficult to

take the appropriate actions to come to actual implementation

or even to integrate or institutionalized [2]. This has led to

sense of disappointment that the transform potential of the

technology is being missed or worse resisted. Markus and

Benjamin [3] claimed that the failure of IT change derives

from the traditional belief of manager and IT experts that

technology is a „magic bullet’ and so they neglect essential

role of people in any management task. Due to ICT‟s impor-

tance in society and possibility in the future of higher educa-

tion, identifying the possible obstacles to the integration of

these technologies in higher education would be an important

step in improving the quality of teaching and learning.

In the face of the diversity in higher education systems in

Southeast Asia regional level, this issue is even more chal-

lenging. All these systems have budgets to balance, standards

to maintain, faculties to satisfy, and social demands to meet.

The development of higher education in this region can be

broadly divided into three main periods, namely: (i) the co-

lonial period, (ii) the early independence period, and (iii) the

contemporary period. It is argued that higher education is

greatly influenced by its historical past, nation-building ef-

forts, and current global trends [4].

Based on historical development of educational system in

this region, a few of the countries has some form of higher

education established by religious bodies. In Indonesia, for

example, non formal Islamic education was carried out in the

mosques [5]. After gaining its independence in 1945, the In-

donesian government established Balia Perguruan Tinggi Ga-

jamada (Gajamada Center of Higher Learning) and the Indo-

nesian Islamic University (UII) in Yogyakarta. The establish-

ment of UII marked the beginning of modernization of Islamic

education in Indonesia. Today, Islamic tertiary educational

institutions are a characteristic feature of higher education in

Indonesia, enrolling about 15% of the total number of tertiary

students in the country [5].

According to Soekartawi, “unpublished” [6] there is an in-

creasing growth in the number of ICT integration into educa-

tion in Indonesia ranging from the elementary school level to

the higher education, this trend emerges numerous challenges

to discover a carried out at the studies being undertaken in

higher education institutions. These studies offer several di-

mensions of problems such as management problems, organi-

zational problems, technological problems and social prob-

lems. Other studies look at the implementation of ICT innova-

tion in higher education done in western countries. Some ex-

plored in the context of developing countries, however, none

explore Islamic-based higher education institutions (IHEI).

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This lack of clarity of understanding ICT implementation in

this type of HEI may lead to a failure and/or an ICT diffusion

slowdown by all users within Islamic based higher education

organizations.

This study intended to fill up this research gap. The focus

was on an Islamic-based higher education institution in Indo-

nesia known as the State Islamic University (UIN) Jakarta.

The purposes of this study are to explore the current state of

ICT usage within UIN Jakarta, and to discover ICT implemen-

tation barriers and organizational issues related to ICT use in

managing a higher educational institution of this nature.

We begin the paper by reviewing the literature of previous

studies related to ICT implementation barriers in developing

countries. Next, how ICT has been integrated in higher educa-

tion institutions in Indonesia is discussed, followed by descrip-

tion on how the case study was conducted. We then describe

the background of UIN Jakarta as the case institution. The

analysis of the data is conducted and interpreted, and finally

the last part of the paper gives the suggestion for the future

studies.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Barriers to ICT implementation in developing countries

Although still scarce, a few studies have been conducted to

investigate barriers and problems ICT implementation in de-

veloping countries. Examples of these studies are Stewart &

Mohamed [7]; Sharma [8]; Nair & Prasad [9].

Based on a pilot survey of 20 respondents from engineers,

project managers, architects and others, Stewart and Mohamed

found the barriers to IT implementation in developing coun-

tries fall into four categories: (i) technological problems

which include high cost of IT, system incompatibility, quan-

tity and quality of IT infrastructure; (ii)Individual and social

problems like lack of IT skill and support IT, computer litera-

cy; (iii) managerial problems which include low level of IT

awareness, lack of leadership, cost driven strategy and client

lack knowledge of IT benefits, low profits margin, high work

load activity; and (iv) language barriers. These problems are

magnified significantly in developing countries along with

other additional barriers contributing to the poor diffusion of

IT. Organizations operating in these countries face further

distinctive difficulties, such as, scarcity of IT professionals,

inadequate physical and information infrastructure, social and

culture diversity, and political barriers that modulate and dis-

tort market competitive forces.

According to Sharma [8] , ICTs have great potential, but in

the developing countries there have been some limitations in

the effective use and spread of ICT. Various factors and prob-

lem linked with the growth of ICT, like political, economic,

cultural and technological factors and barriers to use of ICT in

education in the developing countries. The writer explained

more detail about several barriers that hinder the growth of

ICTs in developing countries, those are : Infrastructure bar-

riers, Policy planning by the Governments, Political factors,

Economic factors, Cultural factors, women in Its and barriers

therein.

Generally, the problems and constraints using ICT for de-

veloping countries are lack of infrastructure, high costs of

information and communication technology, language, illite-

racy, shortage of trained and skilled personnel, lack of ade-

quate amount of relevant content, accessibility and the digital

divide [10].

On a different note, Nair & Prasad [9] emphasized on the

importance of having a good IT policy to ensure successful IT

implementation and use. The study focused on Kerala, India

where despite low per capita income, it is one of the federal

state of India and a region known for its high levels of

achievements in education, healthcare and social justice. In

line with global trends in 1998 the government of Kerala for-

mulated an Information Technology (IT) policy, the policy

aims at increased application of it initial skill of life, enhanc-

ing the industry base creating a robust state information infra-

structure and creating human resources for it. This study dis-

cusses the government's initiatives, achievements and limita-

tions in the implementation of the IT policy. The authors also

attempt to identify the pitfalls in the present IT policy and

suggest suitable solutions. The study shows that, despite hav-

ing financial constraints, Kerala has made significant

achievements in E-governance. The findings of the study also

reveal the need for better strategies for promotion of IT indus-

tries and PC penetration.

B. ICT in higher education institution in Indonesia

Since its independence in 1945, education has always figured

prominently in Indonesia's national developmental policy. Its

importance is highlighted through Article 31 of the Amended

Indonesia Constitution, which identifies education as one of the

key rights of its citizens. Further, the education sector is given a

priority focus in Indonesia's budget, receiving an allocation of a

whopping 20% to the total budget outlay for 2008-2009. De-

spite these efforts, Indonesia's education sector faces numerous

challenges in teaching over 50 million students in 300,000

schools, employing about 3 million teachers spread across 17.5

thousand islands “unpublished” [6].

One of the policy instruments in Indonesia is the integration

of ICT into education ranging from the elementary school

level to the higher education. The national policy for integrat-

ing information and communication technology (ICT) into

education by the Ministry of National Education of Indonesia

is laid down in the Five Year Development Plan, 2005-2009.

Basic activities related to the policy of integrating ICT into

education consist of development of systems, methods and

learning materials through the use of ICT. This is expected to

develop a higher education information network, infrastructure

and human resource to support its implementation, both for

education management and the learning process. By using ICT

for educating students in higher education institutions equity

of quality can be assured.

Implementation of the policy and strategic development in

integrating ICT in higher education in Indonesia may be

grouped into three major directions, namely:

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Quality of learning through increased access to new re-

sources and improved teaching approaches,

Educational management and ICT led management in-

formation systems, and

Quality of ICT graduates and need for ICT specialists.

The goals and objectives of utilizing ICT for education pro-

gram in higher education in Indonesia are to firstly provide all

higher education institutions and its faculty, and students, with

opportunities to learn the use of ICT. The goal is to employ

ICT as an enabling tool to access information and gain know-

ledge through self-paced learning, or through interactions with

lecturers/professors and fellow students. Secondly, it must

electronically link institutions of higher learning and libraries

to provide students and teachers an environment in which dis-

tant resources can be made available remotely at finger tips.

Finally, it must make maximum use of ICT in learning, in-

cluding open and distance learning, to meet the needs and as-

pirations of all students in higher education or in continuing

education and skill enhancement without any constraints with

regard to age, sex, profession, social status, race, distance, or

geographical location.

An example of a HEI that is successful in integrating ICT in

higher education in Indonesia is Bina Nusantara University.

A study on the concept and strategy of how to integrate ICT in

teaching and learning process at Bina Nusantara University

(UbiNus), one of the leading private university in Indonesia,

has been done by Prabowo [11]. The author expressed that

successful ICT implementation in higher education is influ-

enced by four factors: (i) historical factors of university had

started its market position as a computer college, therefore,

currently, most of the students (70%) are studying in Comput-

er Science, and they have no difficulties in using ICT; (ii)

most of lecturers have background in ICT master; (iii) ICT

facilities in university are complete, because since the begin-

ning UbiNus has prepared ICT implementation to support

education activities; (iv) UbiNus has a special unit as IT de-

partment with the main job to develop and maintain IT opera-

tion for 24 hours and 7 days in a week.

C. ICT Program in Higher Education

Several ICT programs have been initiated in Indonesia's

higher education. These are: Global Development Learning

Network (GDLN), Indonesian Higher Education Network

(Inherent), Jardiknas (National Education Network), Indone-

sia-Managing Higher Education for Relevance and Efficiency

(I-MHERE), e-Education, etc.

To optimize the use of ICT in higher education, GDLN is

partnering with the Indonesian Higher Education Network

(Inherent) programme. This joint partnership was launched by

the Minister of National Education Republic of Indonesia on

July 9, 2008. This network enables people in Indonesia –

through 82 state universities, 140 private universities, and 12

regional offices – to connect, share and learn across geograph-

ical border. It was firstly initiated in academic year 2004/2005

with the participation of UI (University of Indonesia), Unri

(University of Riau), Unud (Udayana University) and Unhas

(Hasanudin University). GDLN Indonesia is treated as a learn-

ing center for Indonesians to enhance their knowledge by shar-

ing and learning from others' experiences in different local

area or countries. GDLN programs are specially designed to

explore more on the current issues in Indonesia such as

healthcare, agriculture, education, economic, technology, en-

vironment, tourism, social issues and many others.

Moreover, according Soekartawi “unpublished” [6] pre-

sented, in the case of integrating ICT in higher education in

Indonesia, various technologies have been used like:

Audio (cassette, radio broadcast, telephone, voice mail

telephone),

Video and television (TV broadcast, VCD, fiber optics,

video tape, video text, video messaging),

Computer and internet or web-base (fiber optics, comput-

er, CD-ROM, Computer Assisted Instruction, Computer

Based-Learning, Computer Based Technology),

Web-based via internet (chatting, bulletin board, e-mail,

internet, on-line learning), and

Combination of audio, video, computer and web-based

technologies).

GDLN, Inherent, Jardiknas and I-MHERE are higher educa-

tion networks. Within the networks are some initiatives, like,

Dissemination of library service automation system,

Application system which is distributed to Higher Educa-

tion Institutions for free,

Development of Management Information System (MIS)

and database system for Higher Education Institutions,

Help universities in managing their data and/or informa-

tion related to their assets and resources distributed for

free,

SISDIKSAT (Sistem Pendidikan Satelit) – the implemen-

tation of tele-teaching via satellite, targeted to less devel-

oped public Higher Education Institutions.

GDLN – connected to the World Bank global develop-

ment learning network. Connecting four universities (UI,

UNRI, UNUD, UNHAS) in Indonesia Higher Education

Institutions.

Universitas Terbuka (The Indonesia Open University) –

The Indonesian Open University with open learning con-

tents (UT-on-Line) since 2001, and

Indonesia-Managing Higher Education for Relevance and

Efficiency (I-MHERE).

General evaluation of the GDLN resulted that there is a

great demand of GDLN in more wide usages either in regular

teaching learning activities or in distance and open learning

activities. More specifically, it can be explained as follows:

First, there is a great demand of GDLN. In the beginning

GDLN was set up for the purpose of networking by set-

ting connectivity to enable knowledge exchange in the

context of development. Presently, many colleges and

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universities demand more than the technical facility to run

videoconferences.

Second, there is a great demand on the use of ICT in e-

Learning, i.e. putting content in an online environment,

using PBWiki (Wiki) or Moodle (LMS), using free e-

discussion tools, such as Yahoo Groups, applying e-

Survey, integrating synchronous small group and working

activities using for example Skype.

D. Islamic based higher education institutions in Indonesia

The Indonesian higher education has its own characteristics,

historical context, and environment. Based on historical pers-

pective, higher educational development has been role played

by students in political movements involved in the country‟s

nation building. Student movements in the 1950s influenced

government policy in each aspect of the nation‟s life, includ-

ing the nationalization of higher education institutions, the

repatriation of Dutch academic, and the adoption of national

language as the medium of instruction.

Furthermore, since Islam is the religion of a majority of the

population citizens, Islam and Islamic education have shaped

Indonesia‟s higher education system. The history of Indone-

sian higher education system was initiated by Islamic boarding

schools (pesantren) that provided Islamic education before the

colonial period [5]. Considerable evidence suggests that many

of the graduates from advanced level in „pesantren‟ were ac-

cepted at the postgraduate level of Al-Azhar University in

Cairo, which is one of the prestigious Islamic-based institu-

tions in the Middle East.

Indeed, Islamic education predated secular higher educa-

tion, even though it was only in unstructured formats. There is

substantial evidence to suggest that Islam, especially cultural

Islam, has had a pronounced influence on the higher education

system, while, conversely, academic thinking has also influ-

enced the development of Islam in Indonesia.

Islamic tertiary education institutions such as Islamic insti-

tutes of higher learning (both public and private) comprised

almost 15 percent of total national enrollments [5]. All of

these Islamic Higher Educational Institutions are under a net-

work coordinated by the Directorate of Islamic Higher Educa-

tion (DOIHE), Ministry of Religious Affairs. The DOIHE

facilitates and coordinates more than 500 Islamic Higher Edu-

cational Institutions in Indonesia which are classified into:

1. Six State Islamic Universities (UIN)

2. Twelve State Islamic Institutions (IAIN)

3. Thirty two State Islamic Higher Institutions (STAIN)

4. Four hundred and sixty one Private Islamic Higher Insti-

tutions (PTAIS).

These Study Programs are categorized into two main

groups, namely: Islamic Studies (Ushuluddin, Tarbiyah, Dak-

wah, Adab) and General Studies (Medical, Psychology, Eco-

nomics, Science and Technology, Social Humanity and

Science). For more detail the number of study programs in

Islamic-based higher education under coordination of the Min-

istry of Religious Affairs is shown in TABLE I.

This fact reflects the strategic position of the DOIHE in

higher educational environment in Indonesia. Besides, the

Islamic Higher Educational Institution has also comparative

advantages on a lower tuition fee and humane Islamic nuance.

Having a network spreading out to all of Indonesian areas

which are plural in economy, social culture and ethnic, the

DOIHE is an important partner for government and non-

government organizations, both national and international.

The tasks of the DOIHE are to serve and develop Islamic

Higher Education based on technical policies that have been

made by the Director General of Islamic Education. To ac-

complish its tasks, the DOIHE functions in:

formulating the vision, mission of statement and policy

of Islamic Higher Education

formulating national standard and establishing Islamic

Higher Education which cover academic and student af-

fairs, partnership and institution, educational personnel,

research, public services, scientific publication, library,

and grant and scholarship

implementing technical policies on Islamic Higher

Education

implementing as technical institution and educational

evaluation at Islamic Higher Education

Implementing administration and household affairs at

the DOIHE.

According to description in above, collaboration among

Minister of National Education (MONE) and Minister of Reli-

gious Affairs (MNA) have not been well done. There is a

dualism agenda related to ICT integration in Higher education,

firstly is ICT integration under the coordination of the Minis-

ter of National Education and secondly under the Minister of

Religious Affairs.

III. RESEARCH METHOD

Researchers generally categorize research approach into

empirical and non-empirical researches. According to refer-

ence [12], papers are regarded as empirical if they rely on ob-

servation and apply some type of empirical method (e.g., sur-

vey, laboratory experiment, case study). Non-empirical papers

are primarily based on ideas, frameworks, and speculation

rather than on systematic observation.

This study is an empirical case study. The authors used a

case study approach because of the following reasons: (i) it is

exploratory in nature (the findings of this study will be used as

a basis to design a quantitative survey); and (ii) it will enable

TABLE I

LIST OF PROGRAMS OFFERED by ISLAMIC-BASED HIGHER EDUCATION INSTI-

TUTIONS UNDER THE MINISTRY OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS

No. Institutions Number of Programs of Study

1. UIN 225

2. IAIN 262

3. STAIN 241

4. PTAIS 1071

Total 1799

( Source : www.kemenag.go.id )

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authors to conduct in-depth study. This approach best suited

the study based on the research objectives set.

The purpose is to gain understanding on how some barriers

and organizational problems hinder the successful implemen-

tation of ICT at the UIN Jakarta as a selected Islamic-based

higher education in Indonesia. The actual case study fieldwork

was done through conducting open-ended interviews. Follow-

ing Yin‟s [13] recommendation that selection of interviewees

should match with the research objectives, interviews were

conducted with two respondents from the top-level manage-

ment of the university, namely: (i) the Vice Rector of Aca-

demic Affairs and (ii) Vice Rector of Institution Development

Affairs. They were asked to identify ICT implementation bar-

riers and organizational problems in general as well as to rec-

ognize the specific problems within UIN Jakarta in particular.

The instruments for open ended interviews were developed

based on the literature review, most of them being adapted

from [2], [11], [7]. This case study focuses on organization as

the level of study.

Empirical data collection phase was done from November

until December 2009. Pre-interviews have been conducted by

contacting respondents via cellular phone as well as through

appointments to describe the objectives of the interviews. The

duration of interview was around 45 minutes to one hour for

each respondent. Open ended interviews were conducted in

Bahasa Indonesia as medium language, after that the author

translated into English and verified by an expert. Analysis was

done by conducting the specific steps of qualitative data anal-

ysis following Miles & Huberman [14]. The five steps are: (i)

Listen to the tape and transcribe the interview; (ii) read the

transcripts several times over a period of time to familiarize

yourself with what is being said; (iii) code the interview, cod-

ing means reading the transcript until certain themes become

apparent. Identify each theme by a short word or phrase (iv)

write a summary; (v) write interpretation. [14]

IV. THE CASE INSTITUTION

Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University is also

known as „Universitas Islam Negeri‟ (UIN) Syarif Hidayatul-

lah Jakarta. It is one of the six State Islamic Universities in

the country. It was established in 1957 and originally known

as Islamic Dakwah Academy (ADIA). At that time, the institu-

tion focused on providing just religious knowledge namely:

Islamic Studies such as Faculty of Ushuluddin, Faculty of

Tarbiyah, Faculty of Dakwah and Faculty of Adab. Most of

students who enrolled in religious studies program came from

‟pesantren‟ (Islamic Boarding School ) background – the tra-

ditional Islamic educational system. Since 1960, not more than

4 years after ADIA have operated in diploma academic pro-

gram, it has been changed to IAIN = „Institut Agama Islam

Negeri‟ (State Islamic Institution) Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta.

In this period, IAIN has been offered Islamic degree level pro-

grams for students, it consist of first degree, master degree and

doctoral degree.

IAIN developed rapidly, following a rising demand for

IAIN education in the provinces. The situation resulted in a

policy allowing the establishment of new IAIN institutes in

every province. Based on historic and human resources con-

siderations, Jakarta was awarded the first mandate to establish

a new IAIN. IAINs have since played an important role in the

development of Islamic studies through higher education and

therefore serve as a barometer for the development of Islamic

studies [5]. Islamic learning became increasingly more open,

modern, empirical, historical, sociological, and even anthropo-

logical in the era of new generation of IAIN intellectuals, that

effectively became the modernization of Islamic thinking at

IAIN institutes.

Recent developments have led IAINs in new direction,

not only focus on Islamic studies, but more open to offer gen-

eral studies such as conventional degree programs. For that

new policy, in 2002, it was named as UIN = „Universitas Is-

lam Negeri‟ - (State Islamic University). During this year the

University began to offer conventional degree programs, we

called General studies program like Faculty of Medical, Facul-

ty of Psychology, Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Science

and Technology and Faculty of Social Humanity and Science.

Up to now, UIN Jakarta was the big one of sixth State Is-

lamic University in Indonesia. Based on data statistical re-

leased by Directorate of Islamic Higher Education (DOIHE),

Ministry of Religious Affairs, total number of student of UIN

Jakarta in academic year 2007/2008 are 23,188 students that

covered from first degree, master degree and doctoral degree

level. While, the number of lecturer are 1,438, and the number

of staff that support academic services are 377 staff. The com-

parison number of students at UIN Jakarta to others was

shown in TABLE II.

V. RESULTS

Status and future plan of ICT Implementation at UIN Jakarta

It is noted that UIN Jakarta is still at the infancy stage in its

ICT implementation. Coming from a long history of being a

religious institution based on traditional approach of providing

knowledge, the university has undergone an extraordinary

transformation into being a university that offers both reli-

gious education as well and science and technology and other

„worldly‟ education. This transformation which took place

about seven years ago has a great impact on all parties which

include management, academician and students. Related to

ICT, they are still grappling with the basic use of the technol-

ogy like adjusting from using a typewriter to the use of word

processing software. Nevertheless, the adjustment has been

impressive and positive thus far.

The top management, particularly, is very optimistic and

considers ICT as an added value to the institution with proper

planning and use. The top management‟s vision is on building

the ICT culture within the university. ICT culture here refers

to the situation when ICT will become an integral part of aca-

demic activities in all aspects and staff will use the technology

more than just to achieve the efficiency goal. As mentioned

by one of the respondents:

“We want IT is an integral part of the process of aca-

demic activities at UIN Jakarta including IT cul-

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ture….It means that the people is not just as a user,

but also understand the IT culture…Now the applica-

tion of IT in the UIN is still limited to just administra-

tive, IT as a tool to shorten bureaucracy such as view

the GPA, planning study card (KRS), teaching sche-

dules and so on…not as a culture. We want the IT cul-

ture into the world of campus”.

Secondly, the top management of the university also aims

for a „paperless‟ environment in handling the administrative

matters. On this point, the respondent emphasized the impor-

tance of using e-mails as a means of communication between

staff instead of printing circulars.

ICT Implementation Barriers at UIN Jakarta

ICT is potentially a useful tool for both university manage-

ment and for teaching and learning. In fact, ICT usage in

higher education institutions has resulted in improvement of

the quality of administration system and research in universi-

ties. However, the finding of this study indicates that for the

case of UIN Jakarta, it has led to the emergence of new prob-

lems and challenges for the institution. These new challenges

arise as a result of introducing ICT in their administration and

classrooms.

One of the challenges of ICT adoption process within UIN

Jakarta is concerning the cultural issue, for most employees

and students are still feeling „lack of trust‟ towards ICT usage.

For example, in handling new intakes, the university has to

face with some problems despite having an online system in

place. As described by one of the respondents:

“The simplest example… Candidates outside of Java

should be able to register online where their location

is so far away from the UIN. But they prefer to come

directly to the UIN Jakarta to register the PMDK. Last

year online PMDK was messed, because many pros-

pective students from ALIYAH registered online until 4

or 5 times. It was because they were not sure whether

or not their applications were being approved by the

committee.”

Moreover, the number of employees who are not ICT lite-

rate is still large, whether from the academic staff, administra-

tive staff, and the professional or management group.

Table II presents the summary of barriers of ICT implemen-

tation based on interviews with the Vice Rector I (Academic

Affairs) and Vice Rector IV (Institution Development Affairs)

of UIN Jakarta.

Previous studies indicated that to get the successful of ICT

implementation in higher education depends on many va-

riables, including the availability of the budget, appropriate

design of software and hardware (technological factors), the

training and attitude of instructors, and the realization that

different students have different requirements, experiences of

organization, corporate culture, management problems and so

on. In term of ICT implementation barriers and organizational

issues in Islamic based higher education such as the case insti-

tution, some of the issues are very peculiar. We categorize the

issues within UIN Jakarta as shown in TABLE III, as follows:

1) Technological Factor

The finding of this study indicates that there are a number

of technology-related barriers at UIN Jakarta, of which some

are similar to the ones found in the literature.

One of the technological barriers is related to ICT product

selection problems whereby vendors of various ICT products

and services compete fiercely to win the bid as the supplier for

the institution. With the low level of expertise to evaluate

these bids and high illiteracy of ICT products among the deci-

sion-makers, the chance of making ineffective ICT invest-

ments decisions is high.

Secondly, the costs of ICT infrastructure are still considered

as expensive. Being a public educational institution, UIN Ja-

karta relies on the government for the ICT budget. Having a

limited budget for ICT investment represents one of the major

concerns of the top management.

Thirdly, the software / hardware incompatibility problems

remain as one of the technological inhibitors of ICT imple-

mentation within UIN Jakarta. This situation arises as a result

of the decentralized policy implemented at UIN Jakarta, whe-

reby each faculty or unit is given freedom to adopt and devel-

op their own ICT applications. Unfortunately, most of the

faculties and units are not ready to take this opportunity due to

lack of adequate ICT expertise. Nevertheless, a few faculties

such as the Science and Technology, Economic and Social

Science and Education faculties have tried to develop ICT

application for their local administration and in teaching and

learning. Consequently, this leads to the software / hardware

incompatibility problems, despite the fact that system integra-

tion should not be a problem today.

2) Organizational / management Factors

Related to the organizational issues, an observation from the

study is that, being an Islamic-based higher education and

having the characteristic and historical reputation of delivering

knowledge using the traditional approach, UIN Jakarta does

not have the ICT culture at the workplace and in classrooms.

This is especially true for faculty members and students who

are not part of the ICT faculty or program. The level of ICT

awareness is generally low.

Furthermore, the allocation of ICT development budget in

the annual financial planning is too small compared to alloca-

tions to other programs. In other words, there is a lack of fi-

nancial support from the policy makers which is reflective of

their lack of appreciation for ICT development programs.

Other management factors found from the study is related to

failure of communication among levels of management and /

or lack of communication among rectory and the faculty to

develop the ICT program.

The next issue is pertaining to the hierarchical structure of

the institution. Still adopting a traditional organizational mod-

7 | P a g e

el, this hinders good communication between levels of man-

agement as well as intra-level communication. Generally, the

communication style in this organization flows from top man-

agement to lower level management, or in other words, one-

way communication. As a result, the senior level management

has to be involved with detail decisions and hence, affect the

quality of execution of the program and involvement of the

junior level management. In addition, ICT application pro-

grams that are proposed by the junior level management tend

to neglected, and this led to deceleration of ICT implementa-

tion process.

Finally, the other management problem was inadequate use

of strategic planning for ICT implementation in UIN Jakarta.

It was found from this study that the top management of UIN

Jakarta adopts a „bottom-up‟ approach of planning and decen-

tralized ICT implementation. The use of bottom up approach

was mentioned by one of the Vice Rectors:

“I prefer a bottom up approach. We tackle from the

small ones first... We've done top down approach in the

past, but we were failed. We want to tidy up the small

ones, such as starting from the Faculty and other parts

to fix its own system. And it would be like 'a virus' that

will spread to other places. Now there are some faculties

that already have their own system…In addition, we

choose the bottom up, because it is more flexible than

the top down”.

However, as we know from past experiences of organiza-

tions in developed countries, adopting only this approach will

lead to „piecemeal‟ solution and incompatibility problems. In

fact many organizations today focus on strategic planning

while not neglecting bottom up feedbacks.

3) Individual / Social Factors

From the open ended interviews, it was found that one of

the main problems of ICT implementation within UIN Jakarta

is related to individual problem which is resistance to change,

or in other words, resistance to adopt of ICT in their activities.

For example, as narrated by one of the Vice Rectors:

“At the time I became PUDEK (Deputy Dean) at the

Faculty of ADAB in the 2004, although the faculty of

ADAB, we wanted to have good technology, so adminis-

trative and academic tasks would be effective. We

trained some employees in computer training which

previously they used a typewriter or handwritten. We

asked them to join the training but some of them re-

fused. They thought if they mastered the computer they

would do more tasks …. Although this did not represent

all, some employees have this thinking….”

While the above illustrate resistance from the administrative

staff, resistance also came from key persons in higher educa-

tion system such as senior lecturers. Coming from „pesantren‟-

based training and education, most of them are very new to

ICT and the Internet-based teaching.

CONCLUSIONS

UIN Jakarta has a rather limited experience in ICT imple-

mentation hence it has to face with many barriers and chal-

lenges, which may be categorized as technological barriers,

organizational/managerial and individual barriers. The main

inhibitor is actually related to the work culture and individuals‟

perception and understanding towards the technology. Since

the institution was previously based on traditional and religious

education, the appreciation for ICT is very limited. Most of

staff and students have very low level of literacy on ICT and

perceive the technology as not beneficial, even though the

teaching of Islam has always encouraged seeking new know-

ledge and produce innovations that will be useful to mankind.

Nevertheless, UIN Jakarta has a bright future in terms of ICT

implementation. The strong support given by the top manage-

ment, the clear vision and mission of its ICT implementation,

and the determination to drive the institution to become a

world-class university are the drivers that will ensure the insti-

tution to overcome the barriers successfully.

ICT implementation is a change process, complex, and in-

volve managerial and organizational issue; not just a technical

issue. While numerous studies were conducted in developed

countries on ICT implementation and its challenges, literature

on this issue explored in the context of Islamic-based higher

education institution is still scarce. While this study is explora-

tory in nature and has some limitations, it is hoped that the find-

ings will provide a basis to design a more rigorous study to un-

derstand the issue. The peculiarity of the Islamic-based higher

education institutions warrant more studies to understand

whether religious understanding and value-based management

influences how ICT implementation is carried out in organiza-

tions.

TABLE II

NUMBER OF STUDENTS AT WHOLE UIN IN INDONESIA, ACADEMIC YEAR 2007/2008

No

Name of State Islamic University

(UIN)

D2

(Diploma 2)

D3

(Diploma 3)

S1

(Strata 1)

S2

(Master)

S3

(Doctoral)

Total

1 UIN Sultan Syarif Kasim Riau - 338 9,462 304 4 10,108

2 UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta - - 21,653 815 720 23,188

3 UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung - 508 13,407 677 160 14,752

4 UIN Sunan Kalaijaga Yogyakarta - 151 9,683 247 65 10,146

5 UIN Malang - - 5,991 113 27 6,131

6 UIN Alaudin Makasar 224 191 6,226 262 174 7,077

8 | P a g e

REFERENCES

[1] T. Nyvang, "Implementation of ICT in Higher Education as

Interacting Activity Systems," 2006.

[2] P. Fisser, "Using ICT in higher education: From pilot to implementation, who is involved?," Association for Learning

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enabled transformation," Sloan Management Review, vol. 38, p.

55, 1997. [4] M. Lee and S. Healy, "Higher Education in South-East Asia: An

Overview," Higher Education in South-East Asia, 2006.

[5] M. Buchori and A. Malik, "The evolution of higher education in Indonesia," Asian universities: Historical perspectives and

contemporary challenges, pp. 249-277, 2004.

[6] Soekartawi, "Indonesia - Developing Higher Education Information Network," December 2008, unpublished.

[7] R. Stewart and S. Mohamed, "Barriers To Implementing

Information Technology in Developing Countries," 2002. [8] R. Sharma and I. IGNOU, "Barriers in using technology for

education in developing countries," 2003, pp. 512-516.

[9] K. Nair and P. Prasad, "Development through information

technology in developing countries: experiences from an Indian

state," EJISDC, vol. 8, pp. 1-13, 2002.

[10] G. Upadhaya, "Conference Summary of The International Conference on Information, Technology, Communications and

Development (ITCD) 2001," The Electronic Journal of

Information Systems in Developing Countries, vol. 8, 2002. [11] H. Prabowo, "The Concept and Strategy of ICT Integration in

Teaching and Learning Process at Bina Nusantara University-

Jakarta," Innovations in E-learning, Instruction Technology, Assessment and Engineering Education, p. 127, 2007.

[12] M. Alavi and P. Carlson, "A review of MIS research and

disciplinary development," Journal of Management Information Systems, pp. 45-62, 1992.

[13] R. Yin, "Case study research: design and methods, Applied Social

Research Methods Series, vol. 5," Thousand Oaks: Sage, vol. 1, p.

3, 1994. [14] M. Miles and A. Huberman, Qualitative data analysis: An

expanded sourcebook: SAGE publications, Inc, 1994.

BIBLIOGRAPHY M Qomarul Huda, is a PhD student in second year. Currently,

he has been conducting PhD in Information Technology (IT)

at Kulliyah ( Faculty ) of Information and Communication

Technology (KICT) International Islamic University Malaysia

(IIUM). He is a lecturer at the Department of Information

System, Faculty of Science and Technology (FST), Syarif

Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) Jakarta, Indone-

sia. His research areas include ICT Implementation and orga-

nizational issues in Higher Education Institutions.

Husnayati Hussin is an Asscociate Professor at the Depart-

ment of Information System, Kulliyah of Information and

Communication Technology (KICT), International Islamic

University Malaysia (IIUM). She earned a PhD in Informa-

tion Systems Strategy (Loughborough University, United

Kingdom) – 1998, M.Sc in Management Information Systems

(Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, USA) – 1986, B.Sc in

Computer Science & Economics (Northern Illinois University,

DeKalb, USA) – 1983. Her research areas include, IT organi-

zational issues, IT strategy, e-commerce and IT outsourcing.

TABLE III

ICT IMPLEMENTATION BARRIERS AND ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES IN UIN JAKARTA BASED ON TOP MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVES

Category Literature VR 1 (Vice Rector I) VR 4 (Vice Rector IV)

Technological Factor

ICT facilities, high cost of IT, system in-

compatibility, quantity and quality of IT in-frastructure

Selection ICT product / vendor

problems

Incompatibility of hardware and

software

High cost ICT infrastructure

Management/ Organiza-

tional

low level of IT awareness, lack of leader-

ship, cost driven strategy, and client lack

knowledge of IT benefit, high work load of activity, pressure of work, lack of organiza-

tional support, not enough training, lack of

share vision, senior management resistance, lack of planning and communication (only

focus on short term goal), organizational fit,

corporate culture, strategic impact, imple-menter and researcher perspective, motiva-

tion

Lack of IT Culture to most of facul-

ty member

Financial supporting :

Lack of financial support from

policy maker that give less apprecia-tion of the ICT development

Failure communication among level of management

Hierarchical of organizational struc-

ture typical (traditional organiza-tional model)

Lack of strategic planning

Shortage of trained and skilled

personnel

Lack of IT vision of top man-agement level

Not enough training

Individual/Social

lack of IT skill, computer literacy, language

barriers, user resistance, training of users,

over expectation of IT functionality, range of user behavior (pragmatist and innovators),

lack of user involvement, different users‟ at-

titude skills, low user satisfaction and per-ceived benefit of use, user reluctance, lack of

project partner commitment, characteristics

of key individual, internal culture, social un-certainty, resistance to change.

User resistance

Language barriers

Lack of user involvement

Lack of user involvement

Resistance to change because of increase workload in their

activity and pressure of work

Most of staff inadequate and lack of computer literacy

Others : Government poli-

cy Government Policy maker still not

relevance to actual expectation of

stakeholder

Rule of organizational struc-ture still in pure of hierarchical

model