How are students trained and assessed at Blogging Theology Academy?

Students receive four hours of live instruction a week (two for each course) which cultivates student participation using methods specially designed for this purpose, such as live quizzes and break-out rooms. Active participation and interaction in the live sessions is a requirement for all, and instructors continually reassess each student’s degree of progress. In the ‘Metaphysics and Logic in the Islamic and Western Traditions’ course, for example, students gain repeated practice in the ‘close reading’ of complex philosophical texts, and complete exercises and assignments designed to assist in the mastery of the skills of logical analysis.

In addition, students receive expert feedback on the set reflection pieces and writing assignments. The crowning educational experience at BT Academy is the one-on-one tutorial with Paul Williams and Hasan Spiker, in which students receive active guidance, and evaluation of their scholarly work and development, and are set specific tasks designed to facilitate their progress.   

How is this different from the Blogging Theology YouTube channel?

The two are very different indeed! The Blogging Theology channel comprises an extraordinary catalogue of lectures and knowledge, but passive viewing of educational material is no substitute for the oversight, assessment, and guidance provided by one-on-one interaction with a teacher. See the answer to “How are students trained and assessed at Blogging Theology Academy?”

I am already studying / I work. Can I study at BT Academy?

Yes. Although our Advanced Diploma is rigorous and academically demanding, the time commitment required and workload have been designed so that the Diploma can be pursued alongside other work or study. Within reason, we are happy to try to accommodate the needs of students who may be finding their other constraints onerous, in order to ensure that they are able to make the most of their study with us.

Will BT Academy ever become a bricks and mortar in-person institution?

Yes, that is the plan, and in multiple locations, internationally! Watch this space. However, we will always retain our commitment to also providing online programmes of the very highest quality.

I see that you host Christians and non-Sunnis, etc. What is BT Academy’s religious affiliation?

We are a firmly Sunni Muslim institution, and for the sake of Sunni unity we advocate the broadest conception of Sunni orthodoxy to embrace moderate Salafis and moderate Sufis, including, for example, both Deobandis and Barelvis. We review the Nasafī creed with our students at the beginning of the first term and believe that mastering creed is the most effective means of safeguarding faith from non-orthodox influences. We also host non-Muslim and non-Sunni guest lecturers to provide their expertise in their specific fields. However, they do not provide religious instruction. We do welcome applications from non-Muslim and non-Sunni Muslim students.

Will there be an opportunity to study with Paul Williams and Hasan Spiker in person?

Yes, we are currently developing exciting in-person Winter and Summer retreat programmes at beautiful venues around the world, in which students will have the opportunity to study with Hasan and Paul in person, as well as special guests.

Can an unlimited number of students enrol?

Unfortunately not! We insist upon small class sizes in order to assure the quality of our education, so spaces are very limited. Do not delay your application.

Can I enroll on one of the two courses and not the other?

All students enrolled at BT Academy are working towards the Diploma, which is composed of the two courses, and constitutes the sole qualification we offer at the present time. As such, it is not possible to enroll for only one of the courses.

Why do you interview each student individually?

Because we want to get to know our students. So much of modern ‘mass’ education has an anonymous, ‘faceless’ quality to it, which is completely antithetical to the vision and ethos of BT Academy. This is also why we insist on the one-on-one tutorial as the centrepiece of the BT Academy educational experience. See also ‘How are students trained and assessed at Blogging Theology Academy?’ above.

What will I get out of this diploma?

Graduates from our Advanced Diploma in the Western Tradition and Islamic Philosophy and Theology acquire an extremely rich understanding of the religious and philosophical relationship between the Western world and Islam. Due to the rigorous nature of the programme and its focus on mastery of subtle and precise analytical skills, this will certainly confer a great advantage upon those who will go onto further study in both traditional and conventional academic settings. But more broadly, in a world in which the West is ‘dead, but still dominant,’ to use Habermas’s phrase, graduates from the BT Academy Diploma will emerge with a sense of real empowerment, enabling them to contribute to their environment in a manner that is confident, compassionate, and informed, not reactive, and rooted in a profound and detailed understanding of both the Western and Islamic intellectual and religious traditions.

Why does BT Academy prefer not to be accredited?

'The accreditation of religious colleges systematically undermines the most fundamental purposes of higher education.’

Chronicle of Higher Education

BT Academy does not wish to become subject to the dictates of the mainstream secular educational system, and it is our firm belief that this is precisely the central danger that would be presented by subjecting BTA to conformity to accreditation requirements. Precisely what we mean by this is explained by our co-founder and Dean, Hasan Spiker, in the following: 

‘Increasingly in the West today, Islamic institutions proudly profess to being conventionally "accredited". Such a process avows conformity to various ‘standards’ that have little to do with guaranteeing a high standard of education. This is because the criteria by which these standards are determined and evaluated are largely secular (‘neutral’) as to the content being taught, but pertain primarily merely to a somewhat mechanical, procedural, and largely quantitative series of box-ticking checks pertaining to factors like organizational structure, learning outcomes, and data accumulation. And these apparently innocent forms of procedural regulation veil more sinister and explicit forms of secularization: Diversity quotas, the use of "neutral, pluralistic" language when transmitting metaphysical truths the absoluteness of which it would consider "violence", "equal-opportunity" employment. Look, for example, at WASC's apparently innocent clause on 'diversity, equity, and inclusion.' CFR 1.2 Consistent with its purposes and character, the institution defines and acts with intention to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in all its activities, including its goal setting, policies, practices, and use of resources across academic, student support, and co-curricular programs and services. In fact, as John Langon notes: "One of the new features in accreditation by secular authorities is the diversity required of every department. This is a form of enforced homogeneity, which militates against an internal dynamic of a university based on distinctiveness." One of the consequences of this "enforced homogeneity" is the breakdown of confessional and ultimately metaphysical cohesion, as concessions are made to accommodate a secular conception of "diversity", replete with its relativizing undertones: "Given the influence faculty typically have in hiring, coupled with the challenge of finding faculty who both believe in the school's religious tradition and possess the right qualifications, a school's strict fidelity to a particular confessional standard easily gives way to an increasingly broad and accommodating approach. Once some faculty are hired who no longer really conform to the faith commitments of the school, administrators are in a difficult bind: either acquiesce quietly in looser de facto standards, or undertake unpalatable, impractical, and probably unpopular measures to constrain or remove them. The decision practically makes itself."

Now, the secularizing impact of accreditation has long been observed by Christian commentators in the West. As James Burtchaell notes: "The regional accrediting associations, the alumni, and the government replaced the church as the primary authorities to whom the college would give an accounting for its stewardship. The study of their faith became academically marginalised, and the understanding of religion was degraded by translation into reductive banalities for promotional use. Presidential hubris found fulfilment in cultivating the colleges to follow the academic pacesetters, which were selective state and independent universities. The faculty transferred their primary loyalties from the college to their disciplines and their guild, and were thereby antagonistic to any competing norms of professional excellence related to the Church." A further, more sinister implication of "diversity" is forced acquiescence, within a religious college, to postmodern gender ideology and sexual mores: "The EPPs [Educator Preparation Programs] face challenges when maintaining the professional standards demanded by accreditation and licensure, which can inject secular tenets into the program ... Catholic EPPs must equip their pre-service teachers to recognize and address the increasing conflicts between Catholic anthropology and the beliefs about reality that surface in a secularized culture. An analysis of the standards involved in teacher licensure makes some of these conflicts more evident. For example, the Catholic understanding of one’s identity as a gift (including biological sex) contradicts the increasingly common understanding functioning in public schools that one self-authors one’s identity. Those seeking a license as middle-level educators must meet a program standard that includes language about “affirming” the diversity of all young adolescents, including their sexual orientation."

It is also disconcerting, for another reason, to find Islamic colleges racing after accreditation, at a time in which the huge proliferation of ‘accredited’ institutions in today’s world has ensured that for employment purposes, many accredited degrees are ‘no longer worth the paper they are printed on’, as the saying goes. Indeed, we are entering a time, it is often noted, in which it is increasingly difficult in a conventional university environment to acquire a serious, well-rounded education at all.

Islamic institutions in the West should surely not allow themselves to become methodologically limited by the procedural constraints imposed by conventional accreditation, dutifully following the Jews and Christians down their latest hole. "But then I can get my degree while in an Islamic environment." No. If we stand in need of degrees for potentially legitimate reasons like securing provision (although the link is increasingly doubtful!), how about enrolling in one of more than 3500 degree granting institutions in the US? If on the other hand, we purport to be seeking knowledge of reality for its own sake, let us strive to avoid mixing worldly interests with the pure pursuit of truth.’