Partnerships for the Goals

UNESA builds SDG education into every study programme's curriculum

UNESA SDGs Center · 20 October 2026

Universitas Negeri Surabaya (UNESA) builds education on the Sustainable Development Goals into the curriculum of every study programme: its 2025 curriculum guideline, issued as a Rector's Regulation, directs all curriculum development to help students build the knowledge, attitudes, and competences that support the SDGs, and requires every course plan to name the SDGs the course supports (Universitas Negeri Surabaya, 2025c). The 2025/2026 academic guideline for all undergraduate and applied undergraduate students sets contributing to the SDGs through education as one of the university's goals (Universitas Negeri Surabaya, 2025a), and in 2026 the university launched a green curriculum that brings environmental sustainability into courses across disciplines (S2 Pendidikan Dasar, 2026).

Policy basis

Bab III, Pengembangan Kurikulum Prodi (hlm. 63)

Bab IV, Implementasi Kurikulum, Komponen-Komponen RPS, huruf d (hlm. 95)

UNESA rules that build the SDGs into education for all students

Education integrated across the full curriculum

Universitas Negeri Surabaya (UNESA) integrates education on the SDGs across its full curriculum through the Pedoman Pengembangan, Implementasi, dan Evaluasi Kurikulum UNESA Edisi III (Guideline for the Development, Implementation and Evaluation of the UNESA Curriculum, third edition, 2025), issued as a Rector's Regulation and updating the 2024 edition. It is the rule every study programme follows when it writes or revises its curriculum. Its chapter on the context of the curriculum (Bab II) has a section on the SDGs, which names Education for Sustainable Development as the education higher education must deliver, integrated into formal and informal curricula through topics such as climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction and sustainable consumption (Universitas Negeri Surabaya, 2025c).

UNESA requires every course to support the SDGs: the guideline states that UNESA must take the 17 SDGs into account, that education, research and community service must be directed to support them, and that curriculum development must therefore enable students to build knowledge, attitudes and competences that support the SDGs. It applies this to every course: the course plan (Rencana Pembelajaran Semester, RPS) that each lecturer writes must include, as one of its required components, the SDGs supported in the learning process (Universitas Negeri Surabaya, 2025c).

UNESA governs every undergraduate student's education under its Academic and Student Affairs Guideline, the Buku Pedoman Akademik dan Kemahasiswaan Jenjang Sarjana dan Sarjana Terapan 2025/2026 (Academic and Student Affairs Guideline for undergraduate and applied undergraduate programmes), which applies from admission to graduation and lists as the university's third goal to increase its contribution to achieving the SDGs through education and innovation (Universitas Negeri Surabaya, 2025a). The Directorate of Education and Learning Transformation finalised this integrated guideline on 16 and 17 November 2025 (Direktorat Pendidikan dan Transformasi Pembelajaran, 2025).

In April 2026 UNESA launched a green curriculum that integrates environmental sustainability, natural resource management and ecological awareness into courses in every discipline so that climate change, waste management, energy conservation, and biodiversity are taught in education, economics, the arts and the social sciences as well as in the sciences (S2 Pendidikan Dasar, 2026). Programmes apply the rule when they revise their curricula: on 19 and 20 August 2026 the Fine Arts programme (S1 Seni Rupa Murni) held a focus group with stakeholders, alumni and students to update its outcome-based curriculum with an SDG perspective (S1 Seni Rupa Murni, 2026).

Universitas Negeri Surabaya (UNESA) implements the International School-Based Teaching Practice Programme (Pengenalan Lapangan Persekolahan or PLP Internasional) to provide education students with practical teaching experience in international school environments, strengthen their pedagogical competencies, and develop intercultural understanding. The programme contributes to SDG 4 (Quality Education) by supporting the preparation of competent future educators and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) through cross-border educational cooperation. At the institutional level, the programme is supported by UNESA Rector Regulation No. 18 of 2023 on the Implementation of Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) and UNESA’s PLP guidelines, which provide a framework for experiential learning and teaching practice (Universitas Negeri Surabaya, 2023, 2024). At the national level, the programme aligns with Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology Regulation No. 39 of 2025 on Higher Education Quality Assurance, which establishes a framework for maintaining higher education quality. Together, these policies provide a broader foundation for developing students’ teaching competencies, while PLP Internasional offers an opportunity to apply educational knowledge in an international setting (Universitas Negeri Surabaya, 2024).

Mandatory education for all students

Universitas Negeri Surabaya (UNESA) makes SDG education mandatory for every student because its curriculum guideline covers every study programme and every course plan must name the SDGs it supports (Universitas Negeri Surabaya, 2025c). In addition, UNESA's guideline for Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) makes learning outside the study programme compulsory for students who have completed their fourth semester. One of its options, the thematic community service programme KKN Membangun Desa, is grounded in the SDGs, naming poverty reduction, quality education, gender equality and sustainable village development as its aims (Universitas Negeri Surabaya, 2024).