SDG 10.6.3 Planned Actions to Recruit Students, Staff and Faculty from Under-represented Groups

Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia

Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia (UIII) does not wait for under-represented candidates to find it. As a body, it plans and funds specific actions to bring students, staff and faculty from under-represented groups into the University: scholarship channels reserved for students from Afghanistan, Palestine and other low-income or conflict-affected countries; scholarships that enable Afghan women to continue their studies; affirmative places for Papuan students, persons with disabilities and underprivileged Indonesians; a waiver of the application fee for applicants in financial need; outreach through Indonesian embassies to regions that send few students to Indonesia; and an employment framework and workplace facilities designed to attract and keep women and persons with disabilities as staff and faculty. These actions rest on Rector’s Regulation No. 17 of 2021 on New Student Admissions, which requires admission “without distinction of religion, race, ethnicity, group, nationality, disability or minority status” (Art. 3(d)), and on the University’s staffing regulations and inclusive-campus policy. They target groups whose access to international postgraduate education and academic employment is limited by income, geography, conflict, gender or disability (Table 1).

Table 1. Planned recruitment actions at a glance.

1. Policy Basis for Planned Recruitment

1.1. Rector’s Regulation No. 17 of 2021 on New Student Admissions

The admissions regulation does more than prohibit discrimination. Several of its provisions require the University to reach out to applicants who would otherwise be excluded:

1. Non-discrimination: admission is conducted without distinction of religion, race, ethnicity, group, nationality, disability or minority status (Art. 3(d));

2. Open to the world: admission is open equally to Indonesian citizens and foreign nationals (Art. 4);

3. Accessible publicity: the call for applications must be published in media readily accessible to the public, including the UIII website and social media (Art. 13);

4. Removal of cost barriers: an applicant may request exemption from the application fee with a reasoned application (Art. 14(3));

5. Mid-career access: age limits of 35 years for master’s and 40 years for doctoral applicants may be waived for researchers, academics, teachers and lecturers (Art. 10(2)(b) and 10(3)(b)).

Public access: https://jdih.uiii.ac.id/detail/235

1.2. Employment and inclusive-campus policy

Recruitment of lecturers and education staff follows Rector’s Regulation No. 4 of 2025 on the Personnel System, under which positions are filled through open, competency-based recruitment that does not consider race, religion, gender or social background, while giving affirmative consideration to applicants with disabilities, women and members of the Indonesian academic diaspora. Rector’s Circular No. 1c/Rek/UIII/SE.01/1/2025 on Strengthening an Inclusive and Anti-Discriminatory Campus applies the same commitment to the whole University community in 2025.

Public access: https://jdih.uiii.ac.id/detail/478 (Rector’s Regulation No. 4 of 2025); Rector’s Circular No. 1c/Rek/UIII/SE.01/1/2025 on Strengthening an Inclusive and Anti-Discriminatory Campus: https://jdih.uiii.ac.id/detail/474

2. Planned Actions to Recruit Students

2.1. Scholarship channels reserved for under-represented groups

Instead of leaving all funded places to open competition, which applicants from well-resourced systems would predictably dominate, UIII reserves scholarship channels for specific groups:

1. PEMRI-UIII Scholarship: for outstanding students from Afghanistan, whose higher education system has been severely disrupted and whose women face acute restrictions on study.

2. Norway-UIII and Netherlands-UIII scholarships: enable Afghan women to study for master’s and doctoral degrees at UIII.

4. LPDP affirmative scheme: opens places at UIII for underprivileged Indonesians, persons with disabilities and Papuan students.

5. UIII Scholarship: a bond-free full scholarship covering tuition, living allowance, settlement allowance, health insurance, book and research allowances and, for international students, visa and return airfare, with priority for first-time master’s candidates and for applicants without other funding. In 2025 the University awarded scholarships to 121 students of the 2025 intake.

Public access: https://admissions.uiii.ac.id/home/en#scholarships

2.2. Removing the cost of applying

The application fee is IDR 750,000 for Indonesian and USD 50 for international applicants (Art. 14(2)). Applicants who demonstrate financial need upload the Application Fee Waiver Form with their application, and an approved waiver covers the whole fee for that cycle. In the 2025/2026 cycle 10 waivers were approved. Applicants who do not meet the English requirement for a scholarship may still apply on the self-funded scheme and join an English matriculation class.

Public access: https://uiii.ac.id/admissions/application-fee-waiver

2.3. Outreach to under-represented regions

UIII takes its call for applications to regions that send few students to Indonesia. On 26 February 2025 the University met the Indonesian Embassy in Dakar, accredited to Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire and Cabo Verde, to expand outreach in Africa: linking UIII with Indonesian embassies on the continent, building networks to attract prospective African students and working with the embassies accredited to Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya and Mozambique. During the 2025/2026 cycle the University also held number (+62 821-1429-7553) online admissions information sessions open to applicants worldwide, explaining requirements, scholarships and the fee waiver. The admissions page and guide state that “minorities, women, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply”.

Public access: https://uiii.ac.id/its-time-for-africa-uiii-aims-to-expand-outreach-in-african-continent/; https://uiii.ac.id/how-to-apply/

2.4. Results in the 2025 intake

At the 2025 Convocation Week on 15 September 2025, UIII enrolled 190 new students (154 master’s and 36 doctoral). Of these, 98 are international students from 28 countries, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Palestine and Uganda. The cohort includes a graduate of Al-Azhar University Gaza, admitted to the master’s programme in Turath (Classical Islam).

Public access: https://uiii.ac.id/?p=32319; https://uiii.ac.id/from-gaza-with-love-uiii-warmly-welcomes-a-student-from-palestine/

3. Planned Actions to Recruit Staff and Faculty

3.1. Open recruitment and civil service appointments

Lecturers and education staff are recruited through open calls published on the University’s website, and civil servant positions through the national selection of the Ministry of Religious Affairs. The open call of 16 to 24 August 2025 for seven lecturer positions, two in the Master’s Programme in Dirasah Islamiyah (Turath Islami) and five in the Master’s Programme in Data Science, was open to both Indonesian citizens and foreign nationals, with selection “conducted solely on the basis of individual merit”, so that scholars from other countries, including under-represented regions, could compete on equal terms. On 5 June 2025 UIII received its first batch of 22 civil servant candidates (CPNS), appointed as lecturers in several faculties and as education staff in information technology, finance and internal audit.

Public access: https://uiii.ac.id/?p=31577; https://uiii.ac.id/22-new-civil-servants-officially-join-uiii-in-ministry-led-national-ceremony/

3.2. International and diaspora faculty

As an international university, UIII recruits lecturers from abroad and from the Indonesian academic diaspora to bring scholars from under-represented regions and perspectives into teaching and research. There are 4 (four) international lecturers at UIII until the end of December 2025 who are helping to develop academic activities at UIII.

3.3. A workplace that attracts and keeps women

Under UIII Rector Regulation Number 23 of 2023 concerning the Provision of Gender-Responsive and Child-Friendly Work Facilities, UIII provides facilities that make it possible for women, and for parents of young children, to take up and stay in academic and administrative posts: lactation rooms in work units, a university-run daycare on campus, and flexible working hours for staff who are pregnant, breastfeeding or caring for young children, without loss of employment rights or promotion prospects.

Public access: https://www.instagram.com/daycare.uiii/

3.4. Women in decision-making bodies

Rector’s Regulation No. 12 of 2025 and Rector’s Decree No. 85/R/2025 on the Task Force for the Prevention and Handling of Sexual Violence (PPKS) require at least two-thirds of the task force members to be women. In 2025 UIII employed 169 staff, of whom 57 (33.7%) are women (Table 2).

Table 2. UIII staff by gender, 2025.

3.5. Support for recruits with disabilities

So that students and staff with disabilities who are recruited can take up their places, the University provides a disability services unit that assists applicants from selection onwards, including reader documents and examination assistance, and accessible buildings with guiding blocks, ramps, lifts with Braille buttons and accessible toilets in the academic buildings, rectorate, library and dormitories. The Disability Services Unit at UIII was established through UIII Rector’s Decree Number 40A/R/2025 concerning the Formation of a Technical Implementation Unit for Disability Services within UIII (Public Access: https://jdih.uiii.ac.id/detail/457). Its purpose is to provide support to individuals with disabilities at UIII—including staff members—in the execution of their duties and functions, while also affirming the commitment to equal rights in the use of facilities available at UIII.

SDGs Relevance: Quality Education (4.3, 4.5, 4.b), Gender Equality (5.1, 5.5), Decent Work (8.5), Reduced Inequalities (10.2, 10.3)

4. Summary of Planned Recruitment Actions

Table 3. Planned actions, target groups and public evidence.

Table 4. Recruitment outcomes, 2025.

References

[1] Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia. Rector’s Regulation No. 17 of 2021 on New Student Admissions. Depok, 1 December 2021. https://jdih.uiii.ac.id/detail/235

[2] Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia. Rector’s Circular No. 1c/Rek/UIII/SE.01/1/2025 on Strengthening an Inclusive and Anti-Discriminatory Campus. https://jdih.uiii.ac.id/detail/474

[3] Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia. Rector’s Regulation No. 4 of 2025 on the Personnel System (https://jdih.uiii.ac.id/detail/105); Rector’s Regulation No. 23 of 2023 (https://jdih.uiii.ac.id/detail/463); Rector’s Regulation No. 12 of 2025 (https://jdih.uiii.ac.id/detail/400); Rector’s Decree No. 85/R/2025 (https://jdih.uiii.ac.id/detail/445).

[4] UIII Admissions Portal. https://admissions.uiii.ac.id/home/en

[5] UIII. Application Fee Waiver. https://uiii.ac.id/admissions/application-fee-waiver

[6] UIII. “It’s Time for Africa! UIII Aims to Expand Outreach in African Continent”, March 2025. https://uiii.ac.id/its-time-for-africa-uiii-aims-to-expand-outreach-in-african-continent/

[7] UIII. “22 New Civil Servants Officially Join UIII in Ministry-Led National Ceremony”, June 2025. https://uiii.ac.id/22-new-civil-servants-officially-join-uiii-in-ministry-led-national-ceremony/

[8] UIII. “From Afghanistan to the United States: UIII Unites Hundreds of Students from 45 Countries”, 15 September 2025. https://uiii.ac.id/?p=32319

[9] UIII. “From Gaza with Love: UIII Warmly Welcomes a Student from Palestine”, 15 September 2025. https://uiii.ac.id/from-gaza-with-love-uiii-warmly-welcomes-a-student-from-palestine/

[10] UIII. How to Apply. https://uiii.ac.id/how-to-apply/

[11] UIII. “Open Recruitment: Lecturer Positions at Faculty of Islamic Studies and Faculty of Science and Technology at UIII”, 16 August 2025. https://uiii.ac.id/?p=31577