The student union election for this year was held recently. For a couple of weeks at the end of April, posters and students active in the student union could be seen all over campus, encouraging students to take part in the student union election and help choose representatives for the Student Union Representative Assembly. During the rest of the year, the student union may not be as visible, at least not to most people at the university. But for many of us, regular contact with the student union is part of day-to-day life and a very important component of leading and developing the university’s activities. Students contribute knowledge and experience that is difficult to obtain in any other way.
Cooperation between the university and SUS (Stockholm University Student Union), which represents all the university’s students in relation to the university’s central functions, generally works very well. There is mutual respect and great willingness to listen. The university also has ambitious rules for student influence that apply to all activities and that emphasise the important role of student influence both in developing the quality of education and as a means of safeguarding students’ interests. But well-functioning student influence throughout the university does not happen by itself. It takes an ambition, clear acceptance and continuous attention to the issue at the department, faculty and academic area level. It also takes a willingness and engagement on the part of the students to, for example, fill the seats in the various bodies and groups in which students are entitled to be represented. Without this common ambition and engagement, student influence is just empty words.
When the Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ) recently evaluated the university’s quality system for education, one of the development areas highlighted was, in fact, student influence. Among other things, they noted our ambitious regulations, but found that, in practice, student influence could be further developed. The evaluation resulted in a number of measures being implemented, such as the development of a network for contact persons for student influence and other interested parties at the departments, as well as information initiatives and information material on student influence on our website, aimed at both students and staff. We hope that this will contribute to the further development of student influence at Stockholm University, and that it will both permeate the enter university and be of high quality!
This text is written by Clas Hättestrand, Vice President. It appears in the section ”Words from the University’s senior management team”, where different members of the management team take turns to write about topical issues. The section appears in every edition of News for staff which is distributed to the entirety of the University staff.