Advancing sustainable islamic management education through education for sustainable development

This study explores how Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) can be effectively integrated into Islamic higher education to enhance students’ sustainable competence and strengthen sustainable Islamic management education. The research was conducted in Islamic higher education institutions in Banten Province, Indonesia, with a sample of 150 students and 100 lecturers. Using a quantitative design, the study employs Partial Least Squares–Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), Importance–Performance Map Analysis (IPMA), PLS-Predict, and Finite Mixture (FIMIX) segmentation to examine the interplay among ESD-based curriculum integration, Islamic leadership, and students’ sustainable competence. Results show that curriculum integration significantly improves sustainable competence, which mediates the relationship between curriculum and sustainable management education outcomes. Although Islamic leadership exerts a strong ethical influence, its direct effect is limited, highlighting the need for institutional frameworks that operationalize moral values in educational governance. Theoretically, the findings support a synthesis between sustainability science and Islamic moral epistemology, positioning ESD as the methodological structure and Islamic ethics as the moral foundation. Practically, the study emphasizes competence-based pedagogy, reflective learning, and value-driven leadership for achieving transformative sustainability outcomes. Limitations include the cross-sectional, self-reported data design, restricting causal inference. Future research should adopt longitudinal and mixed-method approaches to better capture dynamic institutional changes.