Assessing the Need of Islamic Economics Curriculum in the Nigerian Universities: The Case of Bayero University, Kano

The persistent deterioration of trust among managers of the economy on one hand, and the declining confidence level of the public on economic and financial institutions in the country calls for the need to assess the type of economic graduates universities in Nigeria produce. In other words, do our universities produce economists that are skillful in the industry but lack ethical as well as moral values? To answer these questions there is a need to examine the university curriculum so as to know the existence or otherwise of courses that enhance skills and those that enhance values. The objective of this study, therefore, is to assess the need for an Islamic economics curriculum that caters not only to building graduate economic and analytical skills but also to the ethical development of a graduate. While Bayero University Kano is not an Islamic University per se, it is well rooted in the values of Islam historically and in the programmes it offers to students from various fields of Islamic revealed knowledge. The paper is based on data from both primary and secondary sources. The primary data were gathered from a survey of both academic staff and students of the Department of Economics, B.U.K. The secondary data were sourced from books, contemporary articles, conference proceedings, reports and curriculum of the department as well as Islamic economics curricula from relevant Universities in the Muslim world. Based on logistic Regression, the findings from this study show that there is a need for Islamic economics curriculum to improve the ethical and moral stand of the students, especially after graduation. There is a need for updating the economics curriculum for the Bachelor of Science Economics at Bayero University Kano.