Edy Cahyono, Ani Rusilowati, Arif Widiyatmoko, Rizki Nor Amelia, Suyatno Sutoyo, Aik-Ling Tan
This study aims to map and compare the perceptions of students and program administrators regarding the implementation of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in Indonesian public universities, while examining the structural relationships among four core dimensions of STEM implementation: readiness, experience, confidence, and effort. Using an exploratory-comparative quantitative survey design, data were collected from 76 participants, comprising 58 undergraduate and graduate students and 18 science education program administrators from two Indonesian public universities. Data analysis employed descriptive statistics, the Mann–Whitney U test, and Structural Equation Modeling using the Partial Least Squares approach (SEM-PLS). Descriptive results show that students reported slightly higher perceptions across all STEM dimensions compared to program administrators, although the differences were not statistically significant, indicating a shared recognition of the importance of interdisciplinary STEM approaches. Structural modeling revealed distinct patterns between groups. For program administrators, STEM implementation was primarily driven by institutional readiness, reflecting the central role of curriculum alignment, policy support, and lecturer preparedness in enabling curriculum reform toward integrated STEM learning. In contrast, among students, confidence and experience emerged as the main drivers of engagement in STEM-based learning, with individual effort serving as a reinforcing factor that supports sustained participation. These findings suggest that effective STEM implementation in higher education requires alignment between institutional capacity for curriculum reform and individual psychological readiness to engage in interdisciplinary learning. By combining comparative and structural analyses, this study offers a multidimensional perspective on STEM implementation capacity within science education programs. The results provide empirical insights to inform curriculum reform, institutional policy development, and strategic planning in higher education, particularly in supporting quality education and sustainable innovation agendas aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. Copyright (c) 2026 The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia; Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia; Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia; Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Indonesia; The Natural Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
