Alhamdulillah, another successful year is coming to an end. May Allah accept our deeds and efforts, and forgive our shortcomings.

 2014 has been a very busy year for the Islamic Online University. We are always looking for ways to improve and enhance the study experience for our students, and this would not be possible without your feedback, support, and prayers – May Allah reward you all. We are very blessed to have you as our supporters, and we ask Allah to help us to continue to bring His beautiful religion to you.

 We would like to share the new programs and features that were introduced in the year of 2014:

1) New Accreditation, Affiliation and License 

The Islamic Online University was granted a university license, and accreditation from the The Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education in Guinea-Bissau; as well as a license to operate an online university in The Gambia from The Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology in The Gambia. The IOU has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding and a Memorandum of Agreement with the The College of Sharee’ah and Islamic Studies at Kuwait University and University Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) of Malaysia respectively.

2) New Programs and Departments

Islamic Online University opened four new departments offering certificate, diploma and degree programs, in addition to introducing other new programs.

• Ijazah Program 

• Youth Dual Enrollment

• Prison Initiative

• Dawa Revival

• Department of Psychology

• Department of Islamic Banking and Economics

• Department of Education

• Department of Arabic Language and linguistic

• BAIS Russian (BA in Islamic Studies in Russian Language)

Intensive English Course (IEC) was launched in The Gambia in 2013 and successfully opened its branch in Somaliland in 2014. The year of 2014 has seen a rapid increase in the number of participants, and currently has 1750 students alhamdulillah. 

3) New Courses in the Diploma Section 

The Diploma section at the IOU has also seen some new programs and workshops, including the following:

• New Muslim Courses by Dr. Bilal Philips in the New Muslim Section

• Introduction to Qur’anic Arabic

• Tadabbur al-Qur’aan (Reflecting upon the Quran) by Abu Abdur Rahman

• Studying Islam Exposing Shaytan and Understanding Zakah with Shaykh Furqan Jabbar

• The Secrets to dealing with Difficult People

4) New Services and Features

In order to enhance the students’ study experience, the Islamic Online University introduced some new services.

• Early Enrollment System
• Cambus backup service
• IOU Alumini
• Student Discounts
• Free Office 365 accounts for students
• Android Application
• IOU-iSearch
• Addiction Counseling
• Muslim Youth Counseling

IOU has over 100 faculty members, and in 2014, IOU also moved to a new home (on the internet) and all IOU email contacts now end with iou.edu.gm  

This year we held over 16,000 live sessions, 13 free webinars, and answered 2 million emails. The total number of IOU registered students is now over 186,800 from 228 countries. IOU students have attempted their exams in one of the 920 various exam centers registered worldwide, as well as completing their community service hours which came to a total of 39,769 approved hours. Finally, we would like to congratulate our 51 graduates from 23 different countries. May Allah accept their efforts.  

We would be very grateful if you decide to support IOU financially so that we may continue to change the nation through education. May Allah reward you for any donation you are able to give, no matter how big or small. To donate please visit:  

http://www.ummaland.com/fundraising/184/islamic-online-university-changing-the-nation-through-education/