People always think that Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Ampel only has Islamic Departments regarding the campus's name. UINSA has several non-Islamic departments, which many high school students put their interest on. The Islamic departments are mainly located in the Ahmad Yani campus, but several non-islamic departments are also located there, such as The Law Department, Management Department, etc. Meanwhile, the Gunung Anyar campus mainly has non-islamic departments, including the English Literature Department. Although English Literature Department is considered a non-Islamic department, in the learning process, English Literature Department still receives Islamic courses, such as Al-Quran study, Hadist study, and Introduction to Islamic Studies.
Students will officially start their university life after the student orientation or familiarly called PBAK (Pengenalan Budaya Akademik dan Kemahasiswaan), has been conducted. The requirement for the First-semester student is to take 24 credits in total. The courses are English Intensive Course, Introduction to Linguistics, Introduction to English Literature, and Pronunciation, along with non-English courses such as Kewarganegaraan and Pancasila. Students will be permitted not to attend the class with only three permissions. Students will only pass the class if they do not exceed the maximum permissions.
Besides that, First-semester students must take two intensive classes, Arabic and English. Both intensive classes will begin at 6.00 am until 7.30 am. In these intensive classes, English Department students will be grouped with other students from other departments in the Faculty of Arts and Humanity, which can be the Arabic Department, History of Islam Department, or Indonesia Department.
Furthermore, first-semester students must join Ma'had class in the afternoon. In Ma'had class, students will receive Islamic knowledge, including hadist and al-quran discussions related to the material discussed. First-semester students will join Ma'had class from 4.15 pm until 5.30 pm. First-semester students will read al-Quran and recite the daily prayer as the Ma'had class test. The final score will later determine the student's eligibility to take the thesis exam.
