Bayan is the premier islamic graduate education institution in north america

Accredited Graduate Degrees

Bayan Islamic Graduate School was founded in 2011 at the Claremont School of Theology (CST), a world-renowned seminary that sought to “desegregate” theological education and enable its students to learn about multiple faith traditions in an authentic manner. The need for a partner to provide graduate-level Islamic Studies led to the formation of Bayan and its incubation towards eventually becoming a free-standing institution. The support of the Islamic Center of Southern California (ICSC), where the founder and president of Bayan, Jihad Turk, was the Imam and Religious Director, helped launch Bayan.

Key community members drawn to the vision of higher education and leadership development for Muslim Americans also helped establish the school. Through the partnership with CST, Bayan was able to design and manage accredited graduate degrees with concentrations relevant to the needs of the Muslim community. Bayan functioned as part of an interreligious consortium representing Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and other faith traditions in Southern California.

Today, Bayan partners with the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS), and will continue this open structure of collaborative education so Bayan students learn within a multi-religious, multi-ethnic, graduate institution that values diversity. Bayan's degree programs, certificates, and courses are open to students of all backgrounds. As of May 2024, Bayan now has 95 alumni.

Bayan provides higher education to men and women who serve as Muslim religious leaders, scholars, chaplains, activists and educators. Bayan's program emphasizes the diversity of perspectives and experiences found in the Islamic tradition and in contemporary Islamic thought, and integrates knowledge from a variety of academic disciplines to prepare our graduates to engage their professional contexts effectively and at the highest standards.

Bayan is producing a cadre of pioneering indigenous Muslim scholars and leaders who positively serve the needs of Muslim and other communities in the religious and cultural pluralism of North American societies. In addition to providing a foundation in traditional fields of Islamic scholarship, Bayan prepares its graduates to engage the current and future generations of American Muslims, and to be effective in civic and interfaith engagement. Graduates are well-qualified and equipped to effectively present the Islamic faith to the broader American society. The success of Bayan will be an historic milestone for Muslims in America.

Bayan provides an Executive Master’s format that is ideal for working professionals and others who can benefit from a low-residency model of education. There is no need to relocate to our campus area for several years to complete a graduate degree. In our program, students from around the country travel to Chicago for a short period of time each semester.

Faculty and students meet in-person for one specific week (6 consecutive days, for 5 hours per day), covering 30 contact hours, or ⅔ of the requirement for a typical 3-unit course. The remaining 15 hours are fulfilled with scheduled online meetings before and after the intensive week. A student may be enrolled in two courses that have intensive meetings during one week. If a student is enrolled in additional intensive courses, then the student may attend a second intensive week for those meetings. At most, a student will attend in-person class meetings for up to two weeks in any given term (Fall, Spring and Summer). Some courses in the program are fully online, and do not require any travel; they involve live online meetings with faculty, and weekly self-paced assignments. A combination of hybrid intensive courses and fully online courses provides students with a variety of options to suit their individual schedule.

FOUNDED IN 2011

BAYAN ALUMNI GROWTH

This chart illustrates the growth in Bayan alumni through 2021-22 and projected growth through 2025-26.