Integrated Knowledge Management in University of Darussalam Gontor: Building Learners‘ Character with Pesantren System

Character education is the deliberate effort to develop a human character with positive behavioral qualities, ethical essence, and performance values for the sake of creating a meaningful life. This article explores and elucidates the importance of character buildings for the learners in the university level with the integrated university education system applied in the University of Darussalam Gontor. This field-research aims at describing and analyzing the character building in this university that primarily runs under the pesantren system. The findings from this study show that character building in this institution is an integral part of the formal, informal, and non-formal curriculum in which sciences, religious subjects, spirituality, and values of Gontor education are integrated. Furthermore, all of these curricular designs are taught with the character building methods of Gontor consisting of planning, organizing, motivating, controlling, and evaluating. Consequently, this system produces pious graduates with ten essential life competencies.