A proliferation of Islamic finance courses

Nestled in a tree-lined gorge on the main railway line between London and Scotland, Durham University is the unlikely seat of Islamic finance teaching in the United Kingdom. Now a swathe of other UK universities want to emulate the worldwide reputation for Sharia finance that Durham has achieved, writes Angela Jameson for The National.

Here, in the third-oldest university in England, a world heritage site, students have been coming to learn the principles of Islamic finance for more than a quarter of a century. Now a swathe of other UK universities – University of East London, Reading University, Aston University, Warwick University, Bangor University to name just a few – are launching Islamic finance courses. With Islamic finance investments forecast to exceed US$3.4 trillion by 2018, the UK government wants to make London one of the centres for Sharia-compliant finance of the world.

A total of 59 schools across Britain are teaching Islamic finance, up from fewer than 10 a decade ago, according to the University of East London. Courses range from short, executive education programmes, designed for people already working in finance, to full undergraduate degrees, masters and PhDs.
Full report on The National site