Encouraging Scientific Writing: An Explorative Study on the Indonesian General Course Learned at Islamic Colleges in Cirebon Regency, West Java Province, Indonesia

College students are expected to be able to develop scientific writing skills. One of the objectives of Indonesian General Course (MKU) is to encourage university students competence in expressing ideas through scientific writing. This research seeks to describe and explain how the scientific writing is specifically learned at all Cirebon-based Islamic Colleges in West Java Province, Indonesia. The data were obtained from Indonesian lecturers and college students learning Indonesian General Course (MKU) at six Islamic Colleges namely Islamic College of Cirebon, Bunga Bangsa Islamic College, Fahmina Islamic Study Institute, State Islamic Institute of Syekh Nurjati, Al-Birun College of Religious Outreach Sciences and Mahad Ali Islamic College. The results of observation show that the processes of learning Indonesian General Course have not been optimally undertaken resulting from the fact that every learning process is irrelevant to the college students needs.