Gender Equality

UNESA provides access schemes that support women students

Universitas Negeri Surabaya (UNESA) provides access schemes for women students through mentoring, scholarships and other provision. In 2025 its Directorate for the Prevention and Handling of Strategic Issues (PPIS) and its anti-violence task force (Satgas PPK) led women's forums for students on gender, healthy relationships and speaking up (Direktorat PPIS, 2025; Satgas PPK, 2025); women were 1,895 of the 2,506 students (75.6%) admitted for 2026 with the KIP Kuliah scholarship for low-income families (Subdirektorat Admisi UNESA, 2026), among 8,513 students on 40 scholarship programmes in the first semester of 2026 (SimBeasiswa, 2026); two of the four buildings of its student residence, 192 of its 283 rooms, are reserved for women (Rusunawa, 2026); and in 2025 and 2026 UNESA opened lactation rooms, daycare and children's play areas so that student mothers can continue their studies (S1 Pendidikan Luar Biasa, 2026; Universitas Negeri Surabaya, 2025; Universitas Negeri Surabaya, 2026).

Mentoring

UNESA mentors women students on gender, relationships and self-reliance. On 14 June 2025 UNESA's PPIS Directorate supported Sekolah Pemikir Perempuan (Women Thinkers' School), held by the UNESA chapter of the student organisation PMII at the East Java Bakesbangpol auditorium, where the Director of PPIS, Prof. Mutimmatul Faidah, guided women students through contemporary gender issues, healthy relationships, personal boundaries and building their capacity as women independent in thought, emotion and action (Direktorat PPIS, 2025). On 5 October 2025 the FISIPOL student executive and Satgas PPK held the women's empowerment seminar “Empowerment Female: Intellectual Value and Bravery”, where two Satgas members coached students on speaking up against harassment and online gender-based violence and on solidarity with survivors (Satgas PPK, 2025).

UNESA trains peer counsellors and runs counselling that women students can use at any time. The PPIS Crisis Center Subdirectorate (SMCC) offers mental health counselling with psychologists and professional counsellors to all students, announced on 30 April 2025 (S1 Pendidikan Bahasa Jerman, 2025); its 2026 first-quarter report describes scheduled counselling sessions, students trained as peer counsellors for mild cases, mental health classes and accompaniment of victims of violence on campus (Direktorat PPIS, 2026). On 12 May 2026 UNESA Campus 5 in Magetan trained its faculty counselling teams and student peer counsellors in active listening, empathy and Psychological First Aid (UNESA Kampus 5 Magetan, 2026), and the Faculty of Psychology's Sedjiwa service gives every student free counselling with peer and professional counsellors, online or face to face (Fakultas Psikologi, 2026).

Scholarships

UNESA awards most of its needs-based scholarship places to women. Of the 2,506 students admitted for 2026 with the government's KIP Kuliah scholarship for low-income families, 1,895 (75.6%) were women: 1,011 of 1,279 (79.0%) on the school-record route (SNBP) and 884 of 1,227 (72.0%) on the national test route (SNBT), above women's 64.7% share of all 20,379 new students (Figure 1; Subdirektorat Admisi UNESA, 2026).

UNESA administers 40 scholarship programmes. Its scholarship system recorded 8,513 active students holding scholarships in the first semester of 2026, 4,845 of them on KIP Kuliah from the 2023 to 2025 cohorts, alongside the ADik affirmation scholarships, among them ADik for students with disabilities, the Surabaya city government scholarship, LPDP, the Indonesian Education Scholarship (BPI), Ministry of Religious Affairs and regional government scholarships, achievement-track (Japres) scholarships and scholarships for international students (SimBeasiswa, 2026).

Other provision

UNESA reserves most of its student housing for women. Its student residence (Rusunawa) has four buildings; Buildings A and B, with 96 rooms each, house female students, while Buildings C and D, with 48 and 43 rooms, house male students, so 192 of the 283 rooms (67.8%), with places for up to 768 women, are for women (Rusunawa, 2026). Each room holds up to four students, and residents share a lobby, multipurpose room, prayer room, canteen, kitchen, laundry area, security guards and 24-hour wifi (Rusunawa, 2026).

UNESA provides lactation rooms and childcare so that student mothers can keep studying. On 5 November 2025 UNESA reported, as part of its support for SDG 5, a certified childcare centre at Labschool UNESA 1 in Ketintang run by Yayasan Dharma Wanita UNESA, the Sunshine Daycare at the Faculty of Education, open on working days from 07.30 to 16.30, lactation rooms at the Faculty of Psychology and UNESA Campus 5 in Magetan, and a children's play area at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (Universitas Negeri Surabaya, 2025).

On 4 June 2026 the Special Education study programme opened a lactation room for lecturers, staff, students and guests, to support women in their academic and professional roles without neglecting breastfeeding (S1 Pendidikan Luar Biasa, 2026). On 20 October 2026 UNESA reported lactation rooms, daycare and children's play areas in all faculties, aimed at students who already have families and at students of the teacher professional programme (PPG), including the Wonderkids daycare run by the Faculty of Psychology at Lidah Wetan, which began operating in 2026 (Universitas Negeri Surabaya, 2026).

Further evidence

UNESA's Career Center helps students and alumni, women and men alike, move into work. Run by the Subdirectorate of Welfare, Careers and Alumni, it offers career counselling, internship advice and job vacancy information. On 8 and 9 September 2026 it held the UNESA Career Fair 2026 at the Ketintang campus, where more than 3,000 students and alumni met 39 companies (Career Center UNESA, 2026a), and on 26 August 2026 a career preparation seminar with Kinobi on writing CVs and preparing for job interviews (Career Center UNESA, 2026b). Students register internships, whether arranged on their own or through government programmes, in UNESA's internship information system, SIMAGANG, which lists 3,825 partner institutions and 7,719 student applicants (SIMAGANG UNESA, n.d.).