African Minds Symposium and Authors’ Workshop
“Student representation in Higher Education Governance in Africa”
Capetown, South Africa, 21 August 2014
An International Perspective on Student
Representation
Manja Klemenčič
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Harvard University
Topics addressed
I Definitions
- student representative associations
- differences between student representation, student activism, student movements
II Student representation on national/regional level in democracies
- a typology of national student associations
- a typology of national systems of student representation
- a typology of national systems of student interest intermediation
III Student representation in institutional governance
- a typology of student representative bodies within higher education institutions
- a typology of institutional systems of student representation
- autonomy of student representative associations
- legitimacy of student representative associations
IV Theories of change of student representation in higher education
governance
I Definition of student representative
associations
Student representative associations – student unions, councils, guilds, bodies,
parliaments, governments – are those whose primary aim is to represent and defend the
interests of the collective student body. They organize, aggregate and intermediate
student interests, provide services for students and organize student activities. They
operate on different levels of HE governance: from the sub-institutional, institutional,
regional, national to supranational level.
Why we study them?
- students the primary constituency in HE, crucial for understanding HE governance
(Luescher-Mamashela 2013; Klemenčič 2012)
- historical presence and extensive activity (Klemenčič 2012; 2014)
- interest groups crucial to understanding functioning of advanced democracies (Eising
2008)
- the role of interest groups in policy processes increasing (Falkner 2000; Beyers et al.
2008)
I Differentiating between between student
representation, student activism and student
movements
Student representation – student membership in collective organizations within higher
education institutions and national systems, organized for the purpose of representing the
interests of students; formal and typically institutionalized form of student organizing.
Student activism – student mobilization in protests or other social movements with a
particular grievance of student, higher education or broader societal relevance;
participation of individual students, groups of students and/or student organisations in a
group action which is typically loose, non-hierarchical and not institutionalized.
Student movement – is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of
students, to represent student interests and campaign for better study conditions and social
welfare conditions of students.
II Student Representation on the
National (and/or Regional) Level
1. How students as collective body are organised at the level of national higher
education governance, i.e. in relation to the government, parliament and higher
education stakeholders? – a spectrum between two ideal organizational types of
national (regional) student associations
2. How student interests are aggregated, articulated and intermediated into public
policy making? – different types of national systems of student representation
and national systems of student interest intermediation
3. How can we explain change in organisations and systems of student
representation at national level?
A TYPOLOGY OF NATIONAL STUDENT ASSOCIATIONS
AS
SOCIAL
MOVEMENT
AS INTEREST GROUPS
ORGANISATIONS
Organisational
structure
Network-like; loosely
functional differentiation
Internal
Resources
Fluctuating administrative funding; volunteers
Political agenda
Transversal: next to sectorial also a strong focus Predominantly
sectorial:
organisation,
on broader political issues
substance and processes of HE and student
welfare
Mode of action
Non-institutionalised forms of claim-making: Lobbying and political advocacy, provide
protests, boycotts, campaigns
services
Outputs
Mobilisation capacity, expertise and information Representativeness,
expertise
information, implementation capacity
Examples
Africa
from
integrated;
limited Hierarchically
ordered
with
strong
centralised coordination; highly functionally
differentiated
Secure
administrative
professionalised administration
funding;
and
???
6
A TYPOLOGY OF NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF STUDENT REPRESENTATION IN
DEMOCRACIES
NEO-CORPORATIST
Number
intermediary
associations
of Limited: possibly
complementary or
differentiated
PLURALIST
functionally Unspecified: identical functions are
territorially performed by several in competition;
domains of action are decided without
regard to other associations; no association
can exercise hierarchical control over
others
Relationship to the Formally or informally grants
state
monopoly of student interest
intermediation. Often accompanied
with secure administrative funding.
No association has monopoly of
intermediation. Administrative and funding
arrangement can exist, but on a
competitive basis.
7
A TYPOLOGY OF NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF STUDENT INTEREST
INTERMEDIATION IN DEMOCRACIES
FORMALISED
INFORMAL
Relational
Stipulated in legislation:
structures to Institutionalised representational
public
structures (e.g. within HE Council
authorities
or accreditation body); written
rules
governing
consultation
procedures or meetings with the
Ministry
Informal, ad hoc or needs-based
practices: informal consultations and
seminars;
representation on nonpermanent working groups; informal
contacts with Ministry officials,
members of Parliament, agencies or
committees
Role in policy Decisive co-actors
processes
External pressure group, experts
8
A TYPOLOGY OF NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF STUDENT REPRESENTATION AND
STUDENT INTEREST INTERMEDIATION IN AFRICA
CORPORATIST
???
NEO-CORPORATIST
PLURALIST
FORMALI
ZED
INFORMAL
FORMALI
ZED
INFORMAL
???
???
???
???
STATIST
???
9
III Student Representation in
Institutional Governance
1. How are students organised into representative student bodies in higher
education institutions?
2. How are student representatives involved in institutional governance?
3. How autonomous are student representative bodies at higher education
institutions? Are student representative bodies perceived legitimate?
4. How can we explain change in organisations and systems of student
representation within university governance?
A TYPOLOGY OF STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE BODIES WITHIN HIGHER
EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
UNION-TYPE
COUNCIL-TYPE
Legal status
Independent legal entity
Integrated into institutional governance
structure
Organisational
resources
Paid employees and elected officials Elected officials (volunteers)
(volunteers)
Membership
Automatic, mandatory or voluntary
Automatic, mandatory or voluntary
Funding
Membership fees, government grants From institutional budget (membership
and other external funding sources
fees), but limited access to external
funding
Political agenda Student social welfare; organisation, Organisation, substance and processes of
substance and processes of higher higher education; student welfare; and
education; and student life
student life
Mode of action
Student services and facilities; co- Co-determinism
(Mitbestimmung),
11
determinism and consultation
consultation, student services
A TYPOLOGY OF SYSTEMS OF STUDENT REPRESENTATION IN INSTITUTIONAL
GOVERNANCE
CODETERMINATION (MITBESTIMMUNG)
Representational
structures
in
institutional
governance
Students are represented in key governing
bodies (senate, board of overseers, etc.),
at different levels of institutional
governance.
Institutionalised
representational structures and rules
governing participation of student
representatives in decision-making are
stipulated in legislation and/or statutory
documents.
Role in decision- Voting rights (a proportion of all voting
making
members) on all or some decision issues.
Student
representatives
CONSULTATION
Informal, ad hoc or needs-based practices of
consulting student representatives: informal
consultations and seminars; representation on
ad hoc working groups or committees.
Structures and rules governing consultation
procedures may be stipulated in legislation
and/or statutory documents or such provisions
are absent and depend on informal
arrangements.
A right to observe, comment, provide input,
but no voting rights.
Student representatives comes from the Student consultants come from representative
one recognized student representational student body or other student groups (e.g.
body.
sectorial organisations, such as AIESEC).
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AUTONOMY OF REPRESENTATIVE STUDENT ASSOCIATIONS
DECISION-MAKING COMPETENCES
INDEPENDENCE
(ABILITY TO ACT)
Policy autonomy: ability to decide on own
political and professional agenda.
(FREEDOM FROM CONSTRAINTS)
Legal autonomy: legal status of the body/organisation.
Governance autonomy: ability to decide on
internal structures and processes.
Financial autonomy: dependency on funding from the
higher education institution (or government); access to
external funding sources; membership fee regime.
Managerial autonomy: discretion over financial
matters, hiring personnel and other resources (e.g.
facilities).
Symbolic autonomy: dependency on (for acquiring
symbolic capital/positional goods) or close ties to
political parties, trade unions, etc.
13
LEGITIMACY OF REPRESENTATIVE STUDENT ASSOCIATIONS
INTERNAL LEGITIMACY
EXTERNAL LEGITIMACY
As student association’s worthiness to be
recognized as a representative structure of
students by the students (i.e. the student body)
of the higher education institution [or in case
of national associations by students within
national higher education systems].
As student association’s worthiness to be
recognized as a representative structure of
students by the (governing and managerial
representatives of the) higher education institution
and other stakeholders [or in the case of national
associations by public authorities and other
national-level stakeholders].
Focus
Perceived ability to represent effectively Perceived ability to competently engage in
and truthfully student interests and foster decision processes and perform
student interests in relation to the
representational functions.
institutional leadership, public authorities
and other stakeholders.
Criteria
Good governance, structural and
procedural democracy, openness to all
students, symbolic autonomy, expertize,
trustworthiness.
Representativity, good governance, expertize,
efficiency, professionalism, constructiveness.
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IV Theories of change
What changes:
- organizational culture, structures, practices (professionalisation)
- systems of student representation and interest intermediation
- influence on decision making (positional power, symbolic capital, …)
Theoretical frameworks for studying change in student representation:
- Rationalist: interested actors take advantage of changing opportunity structures
and follow resource dependencies (resource dependency theory)
- Constructivist: socialisation and social learning
- Neo-institutionalist: structural embeddedness in existing institutions, practices
and traditions mediates and conditions the impact of external drivers
- Cultural: power relations, attitudes to authority, public attitudes to students
- Diffusion: diffusion of ideas through international collaboration, developmental
aid, the role of supranational structures and processes, international organisations,
donor agencies
Thank you!
Contact: manjaklemencic@fas.harvard.edu
References:
KLEMENČIČ, M. (2014). Student power in a
global perspective and contemporary trends in
student organising. Studies in Higher Education
39(3) 2014: 396-411.
KLEMENČIČ, M. (2012). Student
Representation in Western Europe: introduction
to the special issue. European Journal of
Higher Education 2(1) 2012: 2-19.