Student representation in university decision making: good reasons, a new lens?

Abstract

This article outlines the main cases for and related objections against student representation in university governance found in the relevant literature, and proposes a way in which variations in student representation within institutions may be understood and justified. It contextualises the modern origins of student representation in the experience of university democratisation of the 1960s and early 1970s. By means of a review of scholarship, it outlines the various ‘good reasons’ for and against student representation in relation to the most prevalent justifications: i.e. the politically-realist, consumerist, communitarian and democratic and consequentialist cases for student representation. The article then outlines how these complementary and contradictory positions may serve as a complex set of criteria or ‘lens’ for analysing and justifying the representation of students in various domains of university decision making.

Keywords:

• university governance
• student participation
• student–university relationship
• activism
• student engagement

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this article was the winner of the ILJE Emerging Scholars' Manuscript Competition 2011 in the ‘Graduate Student’ category. The author would like to thank the judges of the competition as well as the reviewers of this journal for their useful comments towards the publication of the article. The article has also benefited from earlier comments provided by André du Toit and Martin Hall, and from the editorial work of Stefanie Swanepoel, SDG.