Student Participation in the Governance of European University Alliances

The presentation, based on the research conducted for my master’s thesis and subsequent (pre-publication) chapter co-authored with Nino Gogadze and Vuokko Kohtamäki will discuss the roles assigned to students in the governance of European University Alliances (EUAs). It will tackle a central question of our research: How do students participate in the governance of EUAs?

Engaging students within their academic communities and reinforcing student agency when it comes to university design-making has been a challenge for many European universities. NPM, massification, marketisation and internationalisation of higher education has been reshaping the role of students in the EHEA. Student participation has been recognised as crucial for inclusive university governance, but the range of solutions employed in different European systems is significant. European University Initiative can play a role in reinventing those governance systems both within universities, and future higher education policies. To understand this role more research into student participation in the context of EUAs is needed.

I will present preliminary results of our research with references to relevant literature and relying on Student Partnership Framework (Holen et al., 2021) as a conceptual backdrop. As part of the presentation I will offer an overview as well as a case study of one of the EUA’s, Una Europa. I will provide an assessment of the impact of the European University Initiative on student participation in the governance of universities and consider whether it has the potential to bring about a meaningful change in higher education governance, boosting student agency. I will also suggest practical implications for policymakers and university administrators aiming to foster inclusive and participatory governance structures within European University Alliances.