Student power in a global perspective and contemporary trends in student organising

Abstract

Students, if organised into representative student governments or movements, can be a highly influential agency shaping higher education policy. This article introduces the Special Issue on student power in a global perspective, which addresses the question of how students are organised in different world regions and what role they play in higher education policymaking within universities or at the national level. The article discusses conceptual considerations in the study of student governments and movements and reviews the contemporary trends in student organising globally.

Keywords:

• student governments
• student movements
• student protests
• tuition fees
• higher education politics
• student activism
• higher education reforms

Notes

1. More information on HYY Group is available at http://yhtyma.hyy.fi/en/financial-information/ [accessed 2 January 2014].

2. https://www.warwicksu.com/yourunion/ [accessed 2 January 2014].

3. See note 2.

4. For an excellent review of Altbach's contribution on student activism see Luescher-Mamashela (Forthcoming).

5. I thank Bruce Macfarlane for raising this question during my keynote on student engagement in times of transformations at Annual Research Conference of the Society for Research into Higher Education in Wales, December 2013.

6. I thank Simon Marginson for raising this question during my keynote on student engagement in times of transformations at Annual Research Conference of the Society for Research into Higher Education in Wales, December 2013.