By Prof. Dr. Siswanto, M.Si

Lecturer of Islamic Banking Department

Faculty of Economics UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang

The international seminar activity held by the Universiti Malaya Islamic Studies Academy (APIUM) was delivered by three speakers from FE UIN Malang and two from APIUM on May 29 2024, in Malaysia. Prof. Siswanto, Lecturer at FE UIN Malang, conveyed the theme of religiosity and entrepreneurial motivation of Muslim Students in Indonesia. Siswanto said that religiosity, which comes from the quality of religious spirit, has a vital role in the behaviour of religious people, especially Islam.

Several scholars have discovered the role of religion in economic behaviour and business activity, as well as entrepreneurial intention. A quote from Forbes; “The man without religion is a ship without a rudder”. The study of young Muslim entrepreneurial intention and Muslim student motivation contributes to the urgency of developing youth entrepreneurship. Several global studies, for example, in the Middle East, Philippines, Germany and Greece, show the critical role of entrepreneurship in increasing economic growth and reducing unemployment rates. However, the development of entrepreneurship activities is dominated by the adult and elderly age groups.

Meanwhile, young entrepreneurs still need to develop. Youth, in this case, are residents in the 17-24 year age group, and they are the same age as students. Therefore, universities have a strategic role in encouraging entrepreneurial intentions and motivation, mainly the entrepreneurial intentions of students in Indonesia, which only has 3.10% of entrepreneurs from the total population. Meanwhile, approximately 10% of the total population is needed to become a developed country.