SDG 4.2 Proportion of Graduates with Teaching Qualification

Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia

Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia (UIII) is a postgraduate-only university. All of its students are enrolled in master’s and doctoral programmes, and all of its teaching qualifications are therefore postgraduate qualifications. Within the University, the Faculty of Education (FIP) carries the mandate to prepare educators: its Master of Arts in Education and PhD in Education are built on pedagogy, curriculum development, learning design, educational assessment, child and human development, literacy and educational leadership, and prepare graduates to teach in schools and madrasahs, to lead them, and to train teachers in teacher-education institutions.

In 2025 UIII graduated 164 students from four faculties. Of these, 26 graduated from the Faculty of Education, all from the MA in Education; the PhD in Education had no graduates in that year. This document reports those 26 as the 2025 graduates who gained a relevant qualification for teaching, presents the curriculum that constitutes that qualification and sets out the data on which the figures are based (Table 1).

Table 1. Data reported for indicator 4.2, 2025.

1. Number of Graduates, 2025 (Indicator 4.2.1)

UIII graduated 164 students in 2025, counted as headcount across all levels from the four faculties that had graduating cohorts in that year: the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Faculty of Economics and Business, the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Islamic Studies. The Faculty of Science and Technology admitted its first students in 2025 and therefore contributed no graduates. The headcount is drawn from the official UIII Graduates 2025 list maintained by the Academic Bureau, which records each graduate’s faculty, programme, cohort, gender, nationality and source of funding.

Table 2. Graduates by faculty and programme and teaching qualification status, 2025.

The Faculty of Islamic Studies produced the largest group, 55 graduates across three tracks of the MA in Islamic Studies: the general track (19), the Specialization on Classical Islam (22) and the double-degree track with SOAS University of London (14). The Faculty of Economics and Business graduated 46 students, 25 from the MA in Economics and 21 from the Master of Finance Specializing in Sustainable Finance. The Faculty of Social Sciences graduated 37 students, 19 from the MA in Political Science and 18 from the Master of Public Policy Specializing in Climate Change. The Faculty of Education graduated 26 students, all from the MA in Education, the only programme whose graduates are counted as holding a teaching qualification; the programmes of the other three faculties train economists, policy analysts, political scientists and Islamic studies scholars and contain no teacher-education component. Of the 164 graduates, 104 are Indonesian and 60 are international students from 17 countries, reflecting the University’s role in preparing educators and professionals for Indonesia and the wider Muslim world.

2. Graduates with a Teaching Qualification (Indicator 4.2.2)

2.1. Who the graduates are

The 26 graduates (14 women and 12 men) comprise 15 Indonesian and 11 international students from the Philippines (3), Tanzania (2), The Gambia (2), Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Thailand (1 each). Admission to the MA in Education favours applicants with a background or professional experience in education, and the cohort includes serving school and madrasah teachers, heads of madrasahs and pesantren-based schools, lecturers in teacher-training faculties and staff of education ministries and agencies. These graduates return to classrooms, schools and teacher-education institutions in Indonesia and in their home countries with an advanced qualification that prepares them to teach, to supervise teaching and to train primary teachers. In this way, the programme contributes to UN Target 4.c both directly, through graduates who teach, and indirectly, through graduates who train and lead teachers. Of the 26 graduates, one graduate (Batch 2023) reported having completed the Teacher Professional Education Programme (Pendidikan Profesi Guru/PPG) in 2019 at Universitas Negeri Surabaya (UNESA). The completion of PPG indicates that the graduate has undertaken formal professional teacher training and obtained the relevant professional qualification (Sertifikat Pendidik).

Table 3. Graduates with a teaching qualification, 2025.

2.2. How the figure is derived

The 26 are drawn from the official UIII Graduates 2025 list by selecting every graduate whose faculty is recorded as Education. All 26 belong to the 2023 intake and graduated in 2025 on completion of the two-year programme. No graduate of the Faculty of Islamic Studies, the Faculty of Economics and Business or the Faculty of Social Sciences is included, because none of those programmes contains a teacher-education component. The count is therefore conservative: it includes only graduates whose degree is itself an education qualification, and excludes graduates of other faculties who may hold teaching qualifications obtained elsewhere.

2.3. The qualification and the entitlement to teach

All 26 graduates completed the Master of Arts in Education, a two-year, 42-credit postgraduate programme. Its compulsory core consists of Psychology in Education, Islamic Education, Comparative Philosophy of Education, Education and Society, Equity and Education, Educational Research Methodology and Statistical Analysis, and its specialisation courses include Curriculum Development, Learning Design and Technologies, Educational Assessment, Educational Evaluation, Instrument Development, Literacy Development and Resources, Spatial Thinking and STEAM Education, Educational Management and Leadership and Leading Educational Change. Every graduate is therefore trained in the four competences that Law No. 14 of 2005 on Teachers and Lecturers requires of teachers (Art. 10): pedagogical competence (learning theory, curriculum, instructional design, assessment), professional competence (subject and curriculum mastery), personal competence (philosophy and ethics of education) and social competence (education in a pluralistic society, equity and inclusion).

All 26 graduates hold a Master of Arts in Education, a two-year, 42-credit postgraduate qualification that provides specialised academic preparation for teaching and educational practice. The programme combines foundational studies in educational theory, psychology, philosophy, society, and equity with specialised coursework in curriculum development, instructional design, learning technologies, educational assessment, evaluation, literacy development, STEAM education, and educational leadership.

This qualification provides graduates with a comprehensive academic foundation for undertaking teaching responsibilities. They are equipped with the knowledge and understanding required to identify learners' needs, design and deliver learning activities, develop appropriate learning resources, assess educational outcomes, and address diverse educational contexts. The programme's curriculum also demonstrates clear alignment with the four core teacher competencies stipulated in Article 10 of Indonesia's Law No. 14 of 2005 on Teachers and Lecturers: pedagogical, professional, personal, and social competence. Furthermore, Article 9 of the same law establishes a bachelor's degree (S1) or Diploma IV as the minimum academic qualification for teachers. Holding a master's degree specifically in Education, the 26 graduates possess an academic qualification at a higher level than this statutory minimum and in a discipline directly relevant to teaching. Their qualification therefore provides a strong academic basis for undertaking teaching and educational responsibilities.

It is important to distinguish this academic qualification from professional teacher certification. Under Articles 8 and 11 of Law No. 14 of 2005, formal recognition as a professional teacher also requires a teaching certificate (sertifikat pendidik). Accordingly, the MA in Education is recognised here as an advanced academic qualification and specialised preparation for teaching, without implying that graduates automatically hold professional teacher certification.

Beyond these graduates, UIII students from other academic disciplines also contribute to teaching and educational outreach through university-led initiatives, sharing their respective disciplinary knowledge and expertise with schools and local communities.

Under the same law, the minimum academic qualification to teach at primary level is a bachelor’s or D-IV degree (Art. 9); a master’s degree in education meets and exceeds that academic requirement.

2.4. Relevance to primary education

The curriculum is not confined to secondary or higher education. Literacy Development and Resources covers the teaching of reading and writing in the early grades; Human Development and Psychology in Education cover child development and the learning needs of young pupils; Educational Assessment and Instrument Development cover classroom-level formative assessment; Curriculum Development and Learning Design and Technologies cover the design of lessons and units for schools; and Islamic Education covers the pedagogy of religious education, a compulsory subject in every Indonesian primary school and the core of the madrasah ibtidaiyah (Islamic primary school) curriculum. Well-Being in Education, Equity and Education and Education in a Pluralistic Society prepare graduates for inclusive primary classrooms.

3. Strengthening Teaching Competence

Beyond its courses, the Faculty of Education strengthens the teaching competence of its students through:

1. Guest lectures from national education agencies: in 2025 the courses Education Financing and Educational Policy Analysis brought guest lecturers from the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) and the national curriculum and assessment agency (BSKAP), linking coursework to Indonesia’s basic education and teacher-supply policy.

2. Internships in schools and education institutions: the Faculty places students with Madania School (Sawangan), SEAMEO CECCEP (the Southeast Asian regional centre for early childhood care, education and parenting), the Maarif Institute, Bappenas, the House of Representatives and several pesantren and educational institutions.

3. A laboratory for child development and literacy: the on-campus UIII Daycare, a Montessori-based service for children from 3 months to 6 years, serves as the Faculty’s learning laboratory for human development and children’s literacy; in 2025 learning focused on body awareness, with personal targets reviewed every three months against the Denver II developmental chart, and 60 new children’s books were added.

4. Research on inclusive and equitable education: on 20 August 2025 the Faculty founded the Center for Global and Transformative Education with an Inclusive Education Research Unit, and in November 2025 a Faculty member spoke on neurodiversity at a school in Bogor.

5. International dual degrees: with LPDP funding, selected MA in Education students continue their studies at the University of Edinburgh, Deakin University, the University of Melbourne or SOAS University of London.

Public access: https://foe.uiii.ac.id/; https://uiii.ac.id/uiii-faculty-of-education-expands-global-and-national-academic-pathways-through-research-dual-degrees-and-strategic-partnerships/

4. Courses that Constitute the Teaching Qualification

The following courses were extracted from the UIII 2025 course inventory across twelve programmes. Course type: A = compulsory, B = core elective, C = elective.

Table 4. Teacher-education and pedagogy courses in the 2025 inventory.

The MA in Education is the only UIII programme whose curriculum is designed to prepare students for teaching. No course in the inventories of the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Faculty of Economics and Business, the Faculty of Islamic Studies or the Faculty of Science and Technology is designed for that purpose, and graduates of those faculties are therefore excluded from the count.

SDGs Relevance: Quality Education (4.1, 4.2, 4.5, 4.c), Reduced Inequalities (10.2)

5. Conclusion

UIII is a postgraduate-only, state-established university that admits students exclusively to master’s and doctoral programmes. In 2025 it graduated 164 students from eight programmes in four faculties. Its contribution to UN Target 4.c, the supply of qualified teachers, is delivered through the Faculty of Education, whose MA in Education prepares graduates to teach, to lead schools and madrasahs, and to train the next generation of teachers. For this indicator UIII reports 164 graduates (4.2.1) and 26 graduates who gained a relevant qualification for teaching (4.2.2), a proportion of 15.85 per cent.

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