Transcript The European Students’ Union – a short introduction Presentation for the UASS

The European Students’ Union –
a short introduction
Presentation for the UASS
Summer School 2008
Jens Jungblut
ESU Student Union Development Committee
What is ESU
• The European Students’ Union (ESU) is the
umbrella organisation of 49 national unions of
students from 38 countries and through these
members represents over 10 million students.
• The aim of ESU is to represent and promote the
educational, social, economic and cultural
interests of students at a European level towards
all relevant bodies and in particular the
European Union, Council of Europe and
UNESCO.
ESU‘s history
• Founded in 1982 as the Western European
Students Information Bureau (WESIB)
• Changed into the European Students
Information Bureau (ESIB)
• Today called The European Students‘ Union
(ESU)
• 25th anniversary celebration took place in
Lisbon in October 2007
Main fields of work
• Training activists from National Unions of
Students (NUSes) (ie Lisbon Training)
• Following and influencing the major educational
– political processes in Europe (Lisbon and
Bologna Process)
• Publications and research (Bologna with
students’ eyes, Lisbon with students’ eyes)
• Representation of students’ on the European
level towards other stakeholders
Major events of ESU
• Board Meeting: twice a year, decides on budget,
elects ESU representatives, decided on policy
papers
• European Students Convention: twice a year in
the country, which holds the EU presidency;
always has one general topic with workshops
and panel discussions
ESU‘s structure Part 1
• Highest decision making body is the board,
where all members are represented and which
meets two times a year at the Board Meetings
• The Board elects all representatives (the so
called „Hacks“)
• ESU has a new structure since the end of 2007
and the people, who have been elected in May
2008 are the first ones elected in the new
structure
ESU‘s structure Part 2
• ESU is headed by a chairperson (at the moment Ligia
from Romania), a vice-chairperson (Anita from Latvia)
and three person executive committee (Bruno from
Portugal, Alma from Iceland and Olav from Norway)
• ESU has 4 content committees:
▫ The academic affairs committee (4 members)
▫ The social affairs committee (4 members) The
administrative affairs committee (2 members)
▫ And the student union development committe (2 members)
ESU‘s structure Part 3
• ESU also has Working Groups, which are put in
place by the Board and deal with one specific
issue; members of the Working Groups are
NUSes and not persons
• ESU has Working Groups for example dealing
with Ukraine, International Cooperation, ELearning or Finances
The Student Union Development Committee
(SUDC)
• Newly created committee to support the
development of student movements within and
outside of ESU‘s members
• Elected representatives are Kate from Georgia
and Jens from Germany, responsible from the
side of the Executive committe is Olav from
Norway
Fields of work of the SUDC in 2008
• Publish a student union development handbook,
with an overview over ESU‘s members and
articles on specific content issues (ie
mobilisation, financing, gender equality)
• Conduct study visits to Montenegro and Bosnia
and Herzegovina
• Conduct trainings (Armenia, Ukraine [together
with the Ukraine Working Group])
• Help members of ESU (ie with structural
problems)
Plans for 2009
• Think about internal support mechanisms for NUSes
which are already a member of ESU but face problems
• Continue training activists (ESU pool of trainers and
experts)
• Provide more ESU documents in non-English languages
• Help to improve the communication between members
and help to update ESU’s online resources (online
student union development database)
Any questions ???
• Feel free to contact the SUDC at [email protected] or Jens at [email protected]
• Or visit ESU‘s web site at www.esu-online.org
• Or simply ask your questions now.