Yesterday I was speaker at #EURASHE33 Conference about student involvement in the Alliances and the future and the Alliances. 2 of hot topics at the moment, in the European higher education discussions.
🗣️ Of course, our main and more pressing demand is a democratic student participation in all Alliances. We are still far from this. ESU is requiring guidelines from the Commission, but the effort also has to come from the HEIs themselves. This is why our participation in this kind of event are important: to raise awareness directly towards some of the stakeholders that can make a difference.
🙋 A fully-fledged, meaningful role within the governance of the Alliances is also key for the students representation. Students representative have to be fully integrated in the decision-making process of the Alliances, otherwise it's nothing more than a Rector's club conference. You would not imagine the governance of your HEI without students rep: this is the same thing, but at European level.
💯 Now that the oldest Alliances entered their final phase and the new ones taking inspiration from them, the question of reaching out to the whole student population became more and more core. How the Alliance could be considered sustainable if they keep reaching the same student population? The Alliances should have the high ambition of being for all the students.
This lead us to how ensure a future to the initiative. As exciting it is to look into the future, it is first important to acknowledge the state of the art and how we could move with what we have and what is expected to arrive. I focused on 2 points:
📝 The first one is the role of the legal status for the Alliances. At the moment Alliances are a project-based initiative. At the end of the contract, how could they ensure their own future? There are national possibilities and European options. But the results of the pilot projects all state the same: this is not enough, there is a need for more! This brings then the question of how it would be possible regarding the current state of the Treaties.
💶 Finally, the most important key component: the need for sustainable european funding. The Commission is working on a financial plan, this is a good message. Now the plan needs to fit the ambitions of the initiative! We are happy, in ESU, to be involved in the proposal from Campus France to work on how member states can be involved in the future of the funding. ESU remains firm on our position: an EU initiative should be fund by the EU. This is also the best way to ensure that all the Alliances received an equitable funding, and that they are not dependent on the countries involved in the Alliances. Luck is not a convincing tool.
As a conclusion, I would remind this idea coming from Pedro Teixeira keynote: how long the momentum surrounding the Alliances will last? How can we make sure it will last? These should overall focus.
EURASHE Dora Crișan Denis Hardi Sukh Preet Singh Karīna Anna L.
